Opioid antidotes in schools considered

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This article was published 23/12/2016 (3224 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg School Division is considering stocking its schools with the antidote naloxone in case any student suffers an opioid overdose.

“We need to pay attention to it,” trustee Lisa Naylor said Thursday. “It may be something we deem as a good idea, as part of a first aid kit.”

Naylor raised the possibility at a school board meeting earlier this month and was told the WSD administration was already looking into it. Naylor said a parent, who is also a doctor, had told her another unidentified school division is also considering putting naloxone kits in schools.

Naloxone is an antidote that is effective in some cases of opioid overdoses. Fatal overdoses related to the fentanyl and other opioids have become a health crisis this year across Canada.

Education Minister Ian Wishart said through an aide Thursday the province won’t support naloxone in schools until there has been extensive due diligence.

“Training is required to recognize the signs of an opioid overdose and in order to administer naloxone safely. Based on available Manitoba data, the rise in opioid overdoses appears to be centred in the 20- to 34-year-old age range and, therefore, an accidental exposure in a school setting would likely be statistically rare,” Wishart said in a statement.

He pointed out other large provincial employers such as the University of Manitoba and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority have not sanctioned the use of naloxone by non-regulated health-care providers, and the requirement of antidotes has to be part of a broader policy discussion.

“Opioid overdose continues to be managed through existing emergency response procedures, including calling 911 and performing artificial respirations,” he said.

Naylor was uncertain how much training would be involved for school staff in administering naloxone and recognizing a student had overdosed compared to suffering some other kind of medical emergency.

She was unaware of any WSD student having overdosed while at school. “If we had a kid who had overdosed in a school, we would have been notified,” she said.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society was not familiar with the initiative and did not comment.

NDP health critic Matt Wiebe likes the idea.

“One of the things we’ve called for is the wide availability of naloxone,” Wiebe said. “There has to be training, there has to be support.

“These kids are using more prescription medicines, they’re using more pills — this is the message parents have been giving us.”

Liberal interim Leader Judy Klassen said schools should be part of the public response to the overdose epidemic. “It’s proactive, right? It’s making sure we don’t have students dying in the classroom,” she said.

Manitoba School Boards Association president Ken Cameron said school boards are taking a close look at the issue.

“To date, we are fortunate in that there have been no critical opioid-related instances in Manitoba’s public schools,” Cameron said from Minnedosa. “We anticipate corresponding with school boards on this matter early in the new year. We are still compiling the necessary information. Our advice will reflect the expertise of health-care, risk-management and insurance professionals, as each has a role to play in keeping students, staff and schools safe.”

The Louis Riel, River East Transcona, Pembina Trails and Seven Oaks school divisions all said they’re not currently looking at naloxone for their schools.

However, Seven Oaks superintendent Brian O’Leary said that could potentially change if the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority recommended it as a practice for schools to follow.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca