The number of Naloxone doses distributed on Save A Life Day more than doubled this year.
All 13 Appalachian states hosted more than 300 events on Save A Life Day and distributed more than 45,000 doses of naloxone.
Naloxone is a medication that works to reverse opioid overdoses. One common brand is Narcan, an easy-to-use nasal spray.
In 2020, the first Save A Life Day was organized by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) Office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP) in partnership with SOAR WV, a Charleston-based community group with the stated goal of promoting the health, dignity, and voices of individuals who are impacted by drug use.
This year, the Bureau for Behavioral Health provided $600,000 worth of naloxone in West Virginia and distributed 29,438 doses to community organizations and individuals across the state.
“The expansion of Appalachian Save a Life Day across multiple states underscores our relentless pursuit of saving lives and providing hope to those affected by the opioid crisis,” said Rachel Thaxton, Interim Director for DHHR’s ODCP. “Together with our partners, we have not only made naloxone more accessible but have also opened the door to a brighter future for individuals and families in need.”
Three years since the effort began in just two counties, more than 180 counties across 13 states participated and distributed more than 45,000 naloxone doses throughout Appalachia.
According to Iris Sidikman, the Appalachian Save a Life Day Coordinator with SOAR, about 20,000 doses were distributed last year.
“One of the most moving things about Save A Life Day, to me is watching people take this idea, this idea that we had and this work that we’ve done, and bring it to their community, all the way up and down the country,” Sidikman said. “That, I think, has been the most meaningful part to me.”
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.
An event that started in West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley has now spread to all 13 federally recognized Appalachian states.
All 13 Appalachian states will be hosting more than 300 events on September 14 to distribute Naloxone.
Save a Life Day organizers started in 2020 with a two-county pilot project in West Virginia, which then expanded to 17 counties in 2021, and last year all 55 West Virginia counties participated.
Naloxone is a medication that works to reverse opioid overdoses. One common brand is Narcan, an easy-to-use nasal spray.
Now, just three years since the effort began, West Virginia-based SOAR is working with more than 180 counties across 13 states.
SOAR is a Charleston-based community group with the stated goal of promoting the health, dignity, and voices of individuals who are impacted by drug use.
Iris Sidikman, who goes by they/them pronouns, is the Appalachian Save a Life Day Coordinator with SOAR.
“You never know when you might need that,” Sidikman said. “You might see someone overdose in a grocery store parking lot at a park by your house like best case scenario, you have it and you know how to use it and you never have to.”
West Virginians will be out and about in every corner of the state Thursday in an effort to educate their neighbors and hand out overdose-reversing tools with one goal in mind: Save a Life.
Sept. 8 is Save a Life Day in West Virginia.
West Virginians will be out and about in every corner of the state today in an effort to educate their neighbors and hand out tools with one goal in mind: Save a Life.
“The official name for this day is ‘Save a Life Free Naloxone Day’,” said Joe Solomon, the co-director of Solutions Oriented Addiction Response West Virginia (SOAR). “This September 8 anyone can pick up Narcan in all of West Virginia’s 55 counties at over 180 locations.”
Save a Life Day started out with just two counties in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. But in just two years Save a Life Day has established a presence in all 55 counties.
Solomon’s organization helped spread the event across the state in an effort to get the overdose-reversing drug naloxone into as many hands as possible.
“Naloxone was approved by the FDA 51 years ago,” Solomon said. “The way it works is very simple. It pops off the opioid receptors in your brain and pops them off from the opioid if your brain is flooded with opioids. It allows someone’s breathing to come back online. And that allows their consciousness in turn to come back online.”
Naloxone is a keystone of Save a Life Day because having it readily available can be a literal life changer in a state that Solomon calls ground zero of the opioid crisis.
“In all 55 counties, people want to do something to stop their families and their neighbors from losing loved ones,” Solomon said. “Free Narcan day’s a chance for people to say, ‘Hey, I want you to live, hey, you’re important to our community. Hey, I want you to get through this day, I want you to know that I love you.’”
Naloxone is not the only thing on offer during Save a Life Day. Volunteers and workers also offer education on how to use the medicine, as well as information about local addiction and recovery resources.
Perhaps the most important thing available during Save a Life Day are open minds and a lack of judgment.
Brittany Irick is the coordinator for Monongalia County’s Quick Response Team. Her team works to be on-site after a drug overdose to offer support and resources to those affected.
“Instead of stigmatizing those people who make that choice, let’s give them the tool to prevent a death,” Irick said. “Nobody wakes up and says I want to become addicted to drugs today, I throw my life away. And when people hear that message, I think that it really changes their perspective.”
She points out that overdoses do not discriminate and they are not restricted to substance users.
“As we’ve seen an uptick in fentanyl in pretty much everything all across the state all across the U.S., we’ve realized how important it is to get more Narcan out into the community,” Irick said. “Not just for people who are in active substance use but like college kids, even high school kids.”
Discussions of substance abuse and overdose can get grim at times but in speaking to the people involved in Save a Life Day, there is a palpable energy and excitement to see the event touch every community in the state.
“I’m a little bit partial to helping my state because I think it’s beautiful and full of amazing people,” Irick said. “The fact that all 55 counties are coming together to promote this message like this, this is how we get past this. This is how we get past the drug epidemic.”
There’s a saying in addiction recovery circles: You can’t recover if you’re dead.
Some communities are looking at the longer-term impacts of Save a Life Day. In Logan County, to cap off the day’s activities, organizers like Barb Ellis are preparing for a Recovery Parade to close out the day.
“Once you find recovery, you want recovery for anybody and everybody else,” Ellis said.
Ellis is a peer recovery support specialist for Mountain Laurel Integrated Health Care. She says the day isn’t about one organization or individual, it’s about the community coming together to support each other and address the issue of overdoses together.
“We’re going to be doing a recovery walk,” Ellis said. “We’re asking anybody who is in recovery in our county, or anybody who is a family member of somebody who’s in recovery – because we all know that addiction is an individual thing, it’s a family problem – come walk with them.”
Fellow Logan County recovery specialist and QRT program manager John Kangas says visibility is a powerful tool.
“Being able to have, whether it’s five people, 25 people, 50 people out there walk in the streets, that helps break down the stigma,” Kangas said. “They’ll see these people on the sidelines, will see us walking, “Hey, I know him or I know her. I didn’t know they were in recovery. Holy crap.” Yeah. I mean, we’re everywhere.”
Wherever you are in West Virginia today, be on the lookout for a Save a Life Day event in your community.
On Wednesday, dozens of bright yellow signs were sprinkled across more than a dozen towns in Putnam and Kanawha counties, some accompanied by purple balloons, others leading to tents and tables with bright yellow bags and pamphlets.
“FREE NALOXONE TODAY,” the signs advertised. “OVERDOSE REVERSAL DRUG.”
Naloxone, sometimes called Narcan, is a medication that can be administered nasally or by injection, to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. It can prevent an otherwise fatal outcome, and advocates say it can offer someone dealing with addiction a chance at recovery.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Kanawha and Putnam counties held an event on Wednesday, Sept. 2, where volunteers say they distributed more than 1,000 naloxone kits.
Depending on a person’s tolerance for opioids, naloxone will sometimes cause side effects like sweating, vomiting, a runny nose and increased heart rate.
“But if a person is not breathing, or not breathing well, the chance that naloxone will save their life is more important than any possible side effects,” said Jamie Menshouse-Lukhmanova, a collegiate recovery coach at Marshall University.
She was one of several volunteers outside Bridge Valley Technical Community College, training others on how to recognize an overdose, how to use naloxone and what to do after administering the drug.
Naloxone can come in several different forms. The training offered on Wednesday covered syringes, thigh injections and nasal spray.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Volunteer Jamie Menshouse-Lukhmanova shows how to administer Narcan during Save a Life Day on Wednesday, Sept. 2.
“The first time I administered naloxone, I was still in active addiction, so I was really scared,” Menshouse-Lukhmanova said. “But thankfully, the person had Narcan on them already, and Narcan was really easy to administer to them.”
The process works best when either the person administering naloxone, or the person in need of naloxone, keeps the substance in an accessible place. Because people are supposed to call emergency responders when preparing to administer naloxone, there are also laws in place to protect anyone who, in good faith, administers naloxone from criminal charges.
“I called 911 and overall, it was okay,” Menshouse-Lukhmanova said. “Police didn’t even show up. It was just EMS, and they gave both of us basically referral information for [recovery] services.”
Community Distribution An Effort From Several Groups
The event on Wednesday, spanning Putnam and Kanawha counties, had support from the West Virginia Office of Drug Control Policy and funding from various health groups, including $30,000 from the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation and $10,000 from the CAMC Foundation. Organizers said there was also funding and support from the University of Charleston, the Kanawha County Health Department, the West Virginia Bureau for Behavioral Health, West Virginia Health Right and Cabin Creek Health Systems.
Most of the money was directed toward naloxone, and by the end of Wednesday organizers reported that they had distributed more than 1,000 kits. Leftovers will go to Solutions Oriented Addiction Response, a group that administers naloxone and works to remove the stigma associated with substance use disorder.
Other groups, including churches and recovery organizations, helped plan and staff distribution sites across more than a dozen towns.
Roughly 15 miles from the naloxone site in Montgomery, staff at the Chesapeake Healthcare Center said they had already distributed more than 20 kits by noon.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Therapist Kevin Nichols at Chesapeake Healthcare Center carries a yellow “free naloxone” sign on Save a Life Day, Wednesday, Sept. 2.
“One of the individuals that we actually had come by, she said, ‘It would be irresponsible not to take advantage of this one when it’s free,’” said the center’s CEO, Genise Lalos.
Chesapeake Healthcare Center has lost two patients to overdose deaths since West Virginia began responding to the pandemic, according to Lalos.
“Both could have been prevented if someone would have been there with Narcan,” Lalos said. “These individuals were young and they had families of their own. It’s not only the tragedy of that person’s death, but it’s the tragedy of what they leave behind, and all the people who are affected, who cared about that person.”
Overdoses Increase As Pandemic Wages On
Statewide, as in-person resources for recovery are restricted and stressors increase, emergency responders are reporting more overdoses.
For that same stretch of time in 2019, EMS reported responding to 1,900.
From March to the end of July, the ODCP has reported a little more than 3,000 emergency room visits statewide, all related to overdoses.
“What’s been really sad about COVID-19 in the recovery field is that it seems like West Virginia has had more people in the ER from overdoses than COVID,” said Fran Gray, program director for Recovery Point in Charleston. “It just feels like we still have an epidemic happening on top of this pandemic.”
Recovery Point is an abstinence-based recovery home for people living with substance use disorder, with a few locations across the state.
At the women’s site in Charleston, where Gray works, residents have spent the last month organizing bright yellow backpacks with recovery information inside, for volunteers to hand out on Save a Life Day.
Normally, Gray said September – which is national recovery month – is filled with events for supporting recovery efforts, and removing some of the stigma around substance use disorder. The pandemic has forced some event organizers to either cancel or go remote.
“It’s really sad, honestly, because before COVID, it really felt like we were making this huge impact on the recovery community,” Gray said. “There was really a lot of momentum, a lot of people understood and then with the pandemic, you can tell it’s been watered down a little bit.”
Hope For Harm Reduction Efforts
Lindsay Acree works as an assistant professor at the University of Charleston’s School of Pharmacy, and she joined Gray, Johnson and others to help plan Save a Life Day. She also trains volunteers who want to distribute or administer naloxone.
“It’s a little easier for someone that’s already in the community to get out there and reach individuals that need Naloxone than it is for other individuals, sometimes,” Acree said. “If there’s that community connection, that helps so that they can actually reach the people that need it.”
Save a Life Day was made possible in part by a new law that went into effect earlier this year, establishing a community-based distribution model. Any group with a standing order from a pharmacy, with training, can distribute naloxone and train others on its use.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Collegiate recovery coach Annette Johnson for Bridge Valley Technically and Community College holds one of several Narcan kits volunteers distributed in Montgomery on Wednesday, Sept. 2.
Annette Johnson, a collegiate recovery coach for Bridge Valley Technical and Community College, said Wednesday she hopes to see more efforts to increase community access to naloxone, and increased support for harm reduction initiatives like the program in Fayette County, where staff conduct testing for sexually transmitted infections and facilitate a needle exchange program.
“It saves lives,” Johnson said. “It prevents diseases, and then there’s recovery coaches there that can help and guide people, point them in the right direction and be there for support.”
The West Virginia Office of Drug Control Policy is piloting a new event Wednesday, called Save a Life day, where more than 15 sites across Putnam and Kanawha Counties are prepared to distribute 1,000 naloxone kits to anyone who comes their way.
The event is an effort from the state ODCP, with funding from the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation and the CAMC Foundation.
Participating organizations include churches, clinics and community groups. Peer recovery coaches will be at most sites to offer recovery resources and educational materials.
Dr. Lindsay Acree, an assistant professor at the University of Charleston School of Pharmacy, trains people to give and administer naloxone.
“Naloxone is really, it’s a life-saving drug,” Acree said. “It does not treat the substance use disorder, but it keeps people alive. And that’s really what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to keep people alive, so that they have the opportunity to go into recovery.”
The event is made possible in part after a new law went into effect this year, establishing a community distribution model for naloxone, meaning any governmental or non-governmental organization with a standing order from a pharmacy can hand out this medication.
“It’s a little easier for someone that’s already in the community to get out there and reach individuals that need naloxone than it is for other individuals,” Acree said. “If there’s that community connection, that helps … so that they can actually reach the people that need it.”
Most sites will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2.
Charleston:
Cabin Creek Health Systems Admin Building at 104 Alex Lane
Risen City Church at 1410 4th Ave.
West Virginia Health Right at 1520 Washington St E
Drop-in Center, 1001 Smith St.
South Charleston:
Cafe Appalachia at 206 D St.
Cross Lanes:
Cross Lanes United Methodist Church, 5320 Frontier Dr.
Chesapeake:
Chesapeake Healthcare Center, 11950 MacCorkle Ave.
Dunbar:
Serenity Club, 1225 Ohio Ave.
Elkview:
Elkview Baptist Church at 1150 Main St.
Hurricane:
Church of Christ at 600 Midland Trail
Montgomery:
The Grid (Bridge Valley Community and Technical College) at 807 2nd Ave.
