Waukesha County Librarians get training on how to administer counter agent for drug overdoses

Library Directors from throughout Waukesha County are getting training on how to administer the drug naloxone, commonly known by its brand name Narcan, to help reverse opioid and heroin overdoses.

CBS 58 News will show you the instruction TODAY on the CBS 58 News at Noon.

Apparently, it was the librarians themselves who see a lot of the public come through the doors who wanted to be part of the solution to the pain killer epidemic.

"With the high traffic of members of the public through libraries, there is a higher probability of the need for a drug-abuse first-responder in libraries," said John Kettler, mental health & substance abuse supervisor, for the Waukesha County Department of Health and Human Services. "Library Directors throughout the county have expressed a desire to be a part of the solution to the problem of the rising misuse of prescription opioid pain relievers and use of heroin. This training is a strong first-step," Kettler said.

Training of the Library Directors will include how to recognize opioid misuse and how to administer the overdose-reversal drug as a nasal spray. Within Waukesha County, Sheriff Deputies and other emergency responders are trained to administer naloxone.

Waukesha County statistics for the past three years indicate that the age group with the highest number of heroin overdoses is 20-29 year olds. The death rate within the county has increased drastically within the past decade, from two deaths in 2006 to 20 in 2015. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cites that "from 2000 to 2015, more than half a million people died from drug overdoses. 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose."

In May, Waukesha County Department of Health and Human Services announced that it was selected as a pilot site by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services for the administration of services through a federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). A component of the grant is to offer free community-level training on the administration of naloxone and to distribute kits containing the opiate reversal agent.