Dent County Health Center received two awards from the opioid settlement funds this year. One of those awards focused on established three 24/7 Community Overdose Response Boxes in high-visibility, accessible locations. The boxes will provide free, anonymous access to naloxone, overdose response instructions, and harm reduction supplies, with the goal of preventing opioid-related overdose deaths and increasing community readiness to respond to overdose emergencies.
The Overdose Response Strategy team shared the Dent County Drug Fact sheet displaying the total number of fatal drug overdoses between 2020-2024. The report shows that Dent County continues to experience the impacts of the opioid epidemic.
Many overdoses are witnessed by family members, friends, or by-standers who lack immediate access to naloxone or clear guidance on how to respond. Signs and symptoms of an opioid overdose include small, constricted “pinpoint pupils”, falling asleep or loss of consciousness; slow, shallow breathing; choking or gurgling sounds; limp body; discolored skins (especially in lips and nails). Narcan, also referred to as Naloxone is a proven, life-saving intervention. It works to block the effects from opioids like fentanyl, heriod and prescription painkillers.
Increasing access to naloxone can increase response time to an overdose as well as increasing survival chances of an overdose.
By reducing barriers and increasing community readiness, this initiative strengthens community safety, and prevention opioid-related overdose deaths.
Three boxes were made on April 17th and delivered by April 22nd. The boxes feature instructions on how to respond to an opioid overdose emergency, and a QR code to show how to use naloxone. The video featured in the QR code can be viewed here:
To date the Health Center has placed two of the three boxes at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory and the Salem Public Library
Dent County has worked hard to address the impacts of the opioid epidemic and continued access to resources that prevent deaths will support the community efforts to get individuals into treatment and recovery.
