Robin Rieske is facilitator of CSUR, a collaborative effort that includes Voices of Hope, Turning Point of Windham County, the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont, Building a Positive Community, West River Valley Thrives, Grace Cottage Hospital, Meetinghouse Solutions, and others in the community. They work together to ensure that substance use prevention, harm reduction, and treatment and recovery services reach our rural communities in Windham County.
BRATTLEBORO-At Save a Life Day East on Thursday, Sept. 26, Community Substance Use Response (CSUR) will provide a way for all of us to save lives in Windham County.
This unprecedented effort will train everyday people to be ready to save a life in case of an overdose emergency.
Our goal is to have the largest distribution in one day in all states east of the Mississippi of Narcan, a nasal spray that can quickly reverse an opioid overdose.
Save a Life Day East locations include Brattleboro (Pliny Park and the sidewalk across from the Brattleboro Food Co-op), Townshend (River Bend Farm Market), Wilmington (18 Beaver St.), and Bellows Falls (Parks Place, the Waypoint Center, the Police Department, and Town Hall).
All events take place from noon to 2 p.m., except Wilmington (4 to 7 p.m.).
* * *
Substance use affects everyone, and initiatives like this one help empower all of us to take action and save lives.
It's easy to think that substance use is other people's problem to solve, yet carrying Narcan is an easy way we can all be part of the solution.
Narcan (generically known as naloxone) is easy to use, requires no formal medical training, and saves lives. You need only five minutes to be trained. It's safe, it cannot be misused, and it will not harm someone who is not overdosing on opioids.
CSUR partners have already begun distributing Narcan and training to local businesses, condo associations, restaurants, bars, churches, town halls, and other locations throughout Windham County.
We also work to inform the community about changing attitudes toward Narcan. More people recognize its importance in preventing overdose deaths. Some hesitate to carry Narcan, fearing liability. However, Vermont's Good Samaritan Law protects those who administer the drug in good faith.
Training and distribution also reduce stigma and increase access to help.
The Vermont Department of Health also encourages free distribution of Narcan, and anyone can access it for free, any day, by calling CSUR (802-275-7232), the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont (802-254-8263), or Turning Point of Windham County (802-257-5600), or visiting bit.ly/781-narcan.
For more information about CSUR, contact us at [email protected] or visit windhampartnership.com/csur/.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at [email protected].