On Tuesday, BCHD staff and volunteers were in the community at five Baltimore City polling stations to teach residents waiting in line to vote how to use the life-saving opioid overdose reversal medication, naloxone. Residents were also able to get their flu shot before or after casting their vote.

As Dr. Wen says, “Every interaction is a point of intervention,” which means that we take every opportunity to teach about opioid use and demonstrate what someone can do to help during an overdose. In 2015, Dr. Wen issued a standing order for naloxone to be available to any person in Baltimore who takes the training.

BCHD aims to train everyone to use naloxone, because everyone has the power to save a life. Naloxone trainings only take about ten minutes and can even be conducted online. Once training is completed, BCHD issues a prescription card that can be shown at the pharmacy for naloxone authorization.

It takes only three easy steps to help save someone’s life during an opioid overdose:

1. Check to see if they are overdosing (check here to see the symptoms) by yelling to wake them up or rubbing your fist along their breastbone.
2. If they do not wake up or respond, call 9-1-1 and tell them that the person is unconscious and not responding. At the same time, administer the naloxone.
3. It will take about 2-3 minutes for the naloxone to kick in. During that time, help get air into the persons lungs by implementing rescue breathing. If they do not wake up, repeat Step 2 by administering a second dose of naloxone.

You can visit out dontdie.org to get certified online and find more information.