Woman’s Voice: This special program is brought to you by the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Guests provide information about upcoming events, resources available, and the many ways to help reduce substance use and promote a healthy Lenawee.
Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams and with me tonight is Madeline DeMarco. And Madeline is the Community Outreach and Prevention Coordinator at Lenawee Community Mental Health Authority.
Madeline DeMarco: Alright!
Kathy Williams: Yay. We got it. We got it. So, Madeline, you know, you’re so involved in the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, LSAPC, and so, you know, we want to talk a little bit tonight about signs of overdose. You know, it’s unfortunately prevalent in our community that we’re seeing more people struggling with drugs and with overdose situations, and yet a lot of us might not know what to even look for. If somebody’s struggling, we might not know. So give us, give us some ideas of some things that we can look for.
Madeline DeMarco: We always like to use the acronym “BLUE” when we’re talking about signs of overdose that we’re looking for in our friends and neighbors and family members. And so BLUE stands for… the first letter “B” is for breathing, and so we’re looking for irregular or shallow breathing. Someone might not be breathing at all, or you might hear snoring or gurgling sounds coming from them.
Madeline DeMarco: The next letter “L” stands for lips, and we’re looking at the color of our lips and fingernails. So if someone is light-skinned, they might have a blue or purpleish tint. If they’re darker skinned, it might look a little bit gray on their fingernails or lips. And then “U” stands for unresponsive. And so that means if you give someone a sternal rub or you shake them or shout their name and they’re not responding, that’s that unresponsive piece.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Madeline DeMarco: And then the last. E stands for eyes and we’re looking for small pinpoint pupils. And all of these things add up to be what could be signs of an opioid overdose.
Kathy Williams: And that’s scary when you come across that. I, I would imagine, you know, cause you, like you said, you really don’t know what could be going on. Is it drugs? Is that a heart problem? Are they having a, a seizure? Are they, you know, going into some kind of diabetic problem? And so, you know, the first thing to do is probably call 911.
Madeline DeMarco: Absolutely. The first thing you always want to do anytime you come across the situation when someone might be unconscious or not breathing, is call 911. Get professional help there as soon as you can. The next thing that you can do is we recommend that everybody have access to Narcan. Narcan or Naloxone, you might hear it known as, is an amazing life-saving medication because it can reverse an opioid overdose. So, if someone is overdosed and they’re unconscious, you administer Narcan. It often comes in like a nasal spray or an injectable, like an EpiPen. And it’s literally like waking the dead. Where it will revive that person and get them conscious, get them breathing again, so that they can be more stable until help arrives. The other great thing about Narcan is that there are really no negative side effects. So if someone is just unconscious for another reason or not experiencing an opioid overdose, it’s not going to hurt them, it’s not going to harm them. So it’s safe to use in any situation.
Kathy Williams: That was going be the question I was going to ask is, you know what, if you give it to someone that’s not going through that? They are also making Narcan more available. Now I know, I believe all the law enforcement cars carry it. Of course you have different drop-in centers that have it, and, and it’s available to get at different kinds of events or informational things. Where can a person find out more information about maybe getting some Narcan?
Madeline DeMarco: We have a list of places you can get Narcan on the Prevention Coalition website.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Madeline DeMarco: That’s DrugPreventionLenawee.com. But it’s really available, like you said, in a lot of different places in our community. So groups like Community Mental Health or Pathways Recovery Engagement Center will do free Narcan trainings. So, they’ll teach you how to use Narcan for free and you’ll get your own kit that you can keep.
Kathy Willims: Okay.
Madeline DeMarco: There are also community events. Like Pathways has folks that go to First Fridays here in downtown Adrian, where you can get trained and get Narcan, and also second Fridays, which are held at the Adrian District Library during the wintertime on the second Friday of the month, where you can get trained. You can also access Narcan for free online. There’s a website called NextDistro. “Distro” like “distribution”. And you can go on and watch a quick video and put in your address and it’ll actually mail Narcan right to your door. So there’s a lot of free ways to get it in our community.
Kathy Williams: Yeah, that’s, you know, I mean, it’s one of those things where you hope you never need it, but might as well have it. Is there expiration dates on those or…?
Madeline DeMarco: Narcan is good for about two years.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Madeline DeMarco: And then we recommend that people replace it, store it in a cool place, that sort of thing. But that’s really quite a while, and I recommend that everybody has access to it. I know I like to give it to all of my friends, family members because you never know, even if someone has a surgery, you know, where they might be on some pain medication or something, it’s, it can be easy to, to accidentally overdose on something. And so it’s like having, you know, a defibrillator or a Band-Aid or something like that around, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Kathy Williams: Well that’s great. Well, I sure learned a lot and I know, I’m sure our listeners do too. We really appreciate your helping to educate us a little bit better on signs of overdose and on the Narcan system. Thanks, Madeline.
Madeline DeMarco: Thank you.
Woman’s Voice: The Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition supported by funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Thank you for listening. New messages air on the second and fourth Monday each month at 6:15 PM. You can listen to this program as a podcast under the “on air audio” tab on WLEN.com and get more information at DrugPreventionLenawee.com.
