Baltimore’s Overdose Prevention Program Has Saved 80 Lives So Far

Opiate overdose death is a major public health problem in Baltimore, its toll at times exceeding the city’s storied homicide rate. Yet, such overdoses are easy to prevent and to treat. As death from opiate overdose often takes several hours, there is ample time to provide life-saving interventions.

Through support from Open Society Institute–Baltimore and the Baltimore City Health Department, Staying Alive staff have been leading an effort to train drug-dependent individuals and their families and friends to encourage addicted individuals to seek treatment, to recognize the signs of overdose, to perform rescue breathing after calling 911, and to administer narcan, an opiate antidote. Since May 2004, the program has saved the lives of over 80 people and referred many to drug-addiction treatment.

At a recent forum, Staying Alive staff, prescribing physicians, participants, and evaluators from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health described the program and its progress in saving lives. The forum will also provide opportunity to discuss the implementation of the program, ways to bring it to a larger scale, and how the program fits within the city’s continuum of treatment services.

Listen above.