M Health Fairview partners with Minneapolis' Roosevelt High School for naloxone training
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — M Health Fairview on Monday trained students at Roosevelt High School on how to use naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose and save someone's life.
Twenty teens who are in the health careers program opted in to learn how to administer the medicine and package 500 naloxone kits for city residents to pick up at access sites.
RELATED: Opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone could be available in all Minnesota schools next year
More than 1,000 people died in Minnesota last year of an opioid overdose, according to preliminary data from the Minnesota Department of Health — a crisis fueled by the highly potent synthetic opioid fentanyl.
That includes 27 children under 18. Health officials said widespread availability of naloxone is a "key response" to what is an average of three deaths per day.
"Just like any emergency situation you're prepared for, you may or may not encounter this. But if you do, there's power in knowing how to respond," said Kari Anderson Slade, who teaches the health careers class.
RELATED: Minnesota's Fentanyl crisis: The families left behind
One of Slade's former students, La'Anna Johnson who works at M Health Fairview, came to her with the idea. It's the first such training of students by the health system and it comes at a critical time, Johnson told WCCO.
"Saying 'stay off drugs' is not what's going to keep them alive," Johnson said. "We know that teenagers experiment. We know that they're curious. We know that there's peer pressure. All of these things that make this population such an important target when it comes to receiving this education and receiving the tools that they're going to be given today to save someone's life."
This year, the state legislature passed a law requiring schools keep two dose of Narcan, the nasal spray version of naloxone, in each school building. Any school nurse or school personnel trained to use the medicine can administer it.
RELATED: "Little Free Reviveries" now offering on-demand emergency Narcan doses
Students at the training Monday took home two doses of their own and have a certificate showing they know how to use the medicine.
"We felt it was really important to prepare them for a crisis that's happening, to give them hope and power in what they can do to intervene," Slade said.
Luna Isaacson, 17, chose to participate in the learning opportunity Monday to step up for their community, acknowledging that opioid overdose deaths impact all ages.
"I should be responsible for educating myself on it and be able to help," Isaacson said.