Oral

Drug overdoses associated with chronic pain prescribed medications, prescription drug misuse, and illegal drug use including heroin, have skyrocketed in rural and urban settings. This session describes hospital data trends associated with substantial increases of heroin and prescription drug–related overdoses. These data trends have called for policy and program development of rescue naloxone intervention in community and medical settings involving emergency responders and medical personnel, and by-standers, including patients, family and friends. The session's goal is to describe hospital data trends, naloxone intervention and evaluation results and policy implications from the Federal, Military and State systems’ perspectives to drive future public health models of program design and implementation. The audience will gain knowledge of hospital data trends, naloxone rescue with access to experts who have grappled with data-driven policy development, and the knittygritty of making the case for naloxone rescue programs. The first presenter will characterize trends in opioid overdose hospital admissions between 1993-2007. The second will describe the naloxone rescue initiative within the context Federal (secondary) prevention efforts to reduce opioid abuse and overdoses. The third speaker will describe Project Lazarus, the community-based initiative and how it translates to implementation within the Military to active duty soldiers and their families. The last panelist will describe Massachusetts' implementation of intranasal naloxone distribution among active users, family and friends, police officers and firefighters, including the impact on fatal overdose response rates.

Session Objectives: Discuss prescription overdose trends with a focus on hospital data. Describe the policy barriers and solutions to Naloxone administration in response to opioid drug overdose within state and local, rural and urban public health systems. Describe the lessons learned of preliminary development of a tool kit from a process and policy perspective of naloxone administration to prevent opioid overdose

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)