Canadian high school students to be trained on how to administer naloxone

Tens of thousands of Canadian high school students will be taught how to administer naloxone, a nasal spray drug that is used to reverse the effects of an overdose.

The Canadian Press writes: "The Advanced Coronary Treatment Foundation is announcing Tuesday that its new training program will be added to the CPR and automated external defibrillator training it offers for free in high schools across the country."

Students will be taught how to administer the drug and also how to identify when to call 911, and when to administer CPR.

The training will take place in Quebec, Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia, but will expand to more provinces.

Medical director Jocelyn Barriault said that the opioid crisis is "very real," and that there is a chance that young people could come across someone overdosing "at school or at a party."

She said that if a young person is confronted with someone suffering from heart failure, that the person should be trained how to administer naloxone. "And we hope it's going to work; but if we don't do anything, it's clear it won't."

"Barriault said the training, which was developed after a successful pilot project in Ottawa involving 186 students and 15 teachers in 2019, will be an opportunity to teach young people how to react in emergency situations and on the risks of opioids," the Press writes.

Trainer Carole Nadeau said that between 1,000 to 1,500 Quebec teachers will be taught how to teach the program, which will reach 70,000 students in the province.

"We have done training at 141 schools, which represents 405 teachers that are ready to teach all of their students about opioids," Nadeau said. "It's a lot of people."