New program aims to teach high school students how to respond to an opioid overdose

Conversations about alcohol-use happened frequently at Alexandra Ewanyshyn's Calgary high school. 

They had guest speakers, open dialogues and received advice like, 'drink lots of water', 'make sure to eat dinner', 'don't get behind the wheel of a car'. 

Now a University of Calgary student, Ewanyshyn looks back on those days and wonders if similar conversations about opioids and drug use might have helped her friend Liam, who she said passed away after an overdose in 2019.

"His passing was something that I felt very unequipped knowledge-wise to understand," she said.

"I had really no knowledge in high school about substance use … and what addiction looks like, especially in youth or in one of my peers."

Because of her experience, Ewanyshyn is supportive of a push by the Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation to add more education on drug use to Canadian high schools.

The organization already provides CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) training in more than 1,800 high schools across the country.

Now, the ACT Foundation has launched a new program — 'opioids overdose response training' — which they hope to provide as an add-on to their existing training and rollout in the fall. 

The training is provided to teachers first, with the idea being they'll pass on the knowledge to their students. It will go over what opioids are, how to recognize the signs of an overdose and how to use nasal naloxone, a drug that temporarily reverses the effects of an opioid poisoning or overdose. 

The ACT Foundation has already run a pilot program at four high schools in Ottawa.

"The majority of students said that after learning how to use naloxone nasal spray, that they felt that they could use it in an emergency if it was available," said executive director of the ACT Foundation, Sandra Clarke, in an interview on Alberta at Noon.

"Training in how to use naloxone spray is just adding another lifesaving skill ... so it's really about empowerment."

So far, neither the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) nor the Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) has signed on to receive the free training. 

A representative from the CBE said they look forward to speaking with the ACT Foundation about the program. Another with the CCSD said future health and safety programming may include opioid training.