Prepared to Respond: Naloxone Education Gives Veterans a Lifesaving Tool
By Justyn Charon, Public Affairs Specialist
VA Providence provided naloxone education focused on helping Veterans understand opioid overdose and how access to naloxone can provide an opportunity to intervene when minutes matter.
Knowing how to respond during an opioid overdose can turn a bystander into a lifesaver.
VA Providence continued its overdose-prevention efforts this week through naloxone education, helping Veterans better understand the medication and the role it can play during an opioid emergency.
Naloxone is an opioid antagonist designed to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. VA’s National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention identifies naloxone as an emergency medication that can reverse an opioid overdose and emphasizes that anyone can learn how to recognize an overdose and use naloxone.
Education is an essential part of making that tool effective.
Helping Veterans recognize the signs of a possible overdose, understand what naloxone does and feel prepared to respond can increase the likelihood that someone acts quickly during an emergency.
The effort also supports a larger goal: reducing stigma around conversations involving opioids, substance use and overdose.
VA Providence has previously incorporated Narcan education into broader Veteran resource programming, making overdose-prevention information available alongside other health and support services.
Making naloxone knowledge accessible reinforces the idea that overdose prevention is a community responsibility. A Veteran may never expect to encounter an opioid overdose, but being prepared could someday help save another Veteran, friend, family member or neighbor.
Through prevention, education and access to resources, VA Providence continues giving Veterans tools that can protect health—and potentially save lives.