The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District has the opportunity to obtain Narcan, a brand of the drug naloxone which temporarily blocks or reverses the effects of an opioid overdose, at no cost to the school.
Through Project HOPE, Alaska’s overdose response program, individuals within the school district can be trained in administering the drug and supplied with an opioid overdose rescue kit at each of the schools within the district.
“We are prepared to have all our nurses trained and supplied at our October in-service,” Iris Wetz, the district nursing supervisor with the district, said in a letter to the school board. “They, in turn, would train key personnel in their schools at their administrator’s discretion.”
The nasal spray could save a life by bringing a person out of an overdose situation in less than a minute, Wetz said.