Brandeis hosts training on naloxone use

Area coordinators receive training to administer emergency naloxone

Photo/Mike Lovett

The statistics are sobering: in Middlesex County where Brandeis is located, an average of four or five people a week are dying of opioid-related overdoses – 889 lives lost since 2012.

On Friday Sept. 22, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan sponsored a training in the use of naloxone, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses, for area coordinators – staff assigned to oversee residence halls at Brandeis. Led by Dr. Dan Muse, an emergency department physician at Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital, the training covered types of opioids currently in circulation, how to administer naloxone and perform CPR if necessary.  Public Safety officers are being trained in administration of the drug as well, and carried inside campus police cruisers, and the Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps (better known as BEMCo) has trained its volunteers and carried naloxone in its vehicles since 2012.

In addition to being prepared to treat an emergency, Brandeis offers help for substance use issues. On the research and policy side, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management is home to the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative, where researchers are studying how to best respond to the opioid crisis, and are assisting state and federal officials in developing policies to combat the epidemic.