Hi, my name is Courtney Uy, and I am a third-year osteopathic medical student at A.T. Steele University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona with a cohort placement in Alton, Illinois. Today I'm going to be presenting our project, Empowering Communities Through NARCAN Training and Analysis of Opioid Overdose Reversal Education in a Community Setting. I'll walk you through the background of why we chose this project and why it's important to us, our objectives, our methods, and then finally our results and conclusion about the impact of this project. So just a little background about our project, specifically why we picked it, and some data supporting the issue at hand. The opioid epidemic is a well-known crisis with numerous studies and surveys identifying high-risk areas. Madison County, Illinois, where our cohort is located, is significantly impacted by high overdose-related deaths. It actually had the 10th highest opioid fatality rate in Illinois in a 2022 report, with 29.3 deaths per 100,000 capita. The persistent impact of the opioid epidemic in this area necessitated targeted intervention. Alton Memorial Hospital serves five counties, including Madison County, and in response to this crisis, an educational outreach program was launched called the Warm Handoff Team, which targets individuals struggling with addiction. So partnering with this Warm Handoff Team was deemed the best approach to effectively address the needs of our community in combating the opioid epidemic. So our goals for this project was to implement strategies in order to better fight against the opioid crisis. We wanted to understand the importance of Narcan training while also empowering our community members to address the opioid overdose emergencies. We wanted to gain insight into effectiveness of community-based opioid overdose training in enhancing participants' comfort and knowledge. And then finally, we really wanted to explore the potential implications and strategies for implementing accessible Narcan training initiatives in more communities. To kick our project off, we wanted to develop training ourselves to cover opioid information, overdose recognition, Narcan usage, and local Narcan availability. By carefully crafting the training ourselves, our team can make sure that all the necessary information to respond to emergencies was included, including rescue breathing, Narcan administration, and interacting with first responders. Also by creating the content ourselves, we were not only well-prepared to teach others on the topic, but we were able to ensure complete and quality training material for our participants. After we developed the content, then we moved on to flyer distribution, advertising the Narcan training across the community, and we focused on clinics where students rotate in order to reach our specific patient population. Prior to the training, we administered a survey with five multiple-choice questions to assess initial comfort levels in responding to an opioid overdose. Then we conducted the training, delivered the Narcan training to all of our participants. And then finally, we administered a post-survey with the same five multiple-choice questions plus three additional questions for program evaluation, future training interest, and recommendation likelihood. Out of the 15 participants offered to participate in the surveys, we had 14 survey responses included. One participant did not participate in both pre- and post-survey, and therefore was not included. As you can see here in figure one, the participants post-survey comfort with responding to an opioid overdose overall increased when compared to the pre-survey. You can see that we had five participants pre-survey that were very comfortable using Narcan to respond to an opioid overdose, and then we had nine participants post-survey that were very comfortable. We also looked at the average knowledge score, which was the total score out of those five multiple-choice questions pre- versus post-survey. And as you can see here in figure two, the participants pre-survey average knowledge score, which is 2.43, increased on average by 1.43 points when compared to the post-survey average knowledge score of 3.86. And then finally, you can see here on figure three that the survey findings indicated a strong interest within the community for similar Narcan training sessions in the future as 100% of the participants expressed interest in similar training sessions. You could also see that the community thought that these training sessions were very helpful and that they would absolutely recommend it to their colleagues. As you can see with the results, participants' understanding and comfort with recognizing opioid overdoses and administrating Narcan improved significantly after training, increasing their likelihood of intervening in emergencies. The training, which included take-home Narcan, equipped the community members with the knowledge and skills needed to respond effectively to opioid overdoses, empowering them to take proactive steps in saving lives. The outreach program underscores the importance of collaboration among healthcare providers, community organizations, and local residents in combating the opioid epidemic and enhancing health and safety in Madison County. Alton Memorial Hospital's training extended its educational outreach to multiple counties, potentially saving lives across the region with each training session. There were some limitations to this project, including difficulties in reaching all target populations around Alton, Illinois, which could have impacted the effectiveness of the outreach program. We also did have a last-minute change in training location, which may have affected participant attendance and overall participation rates. And then finally, the stigma associated with substance use disorders may have hindered efforts to recruit participants for the training programs. This may have also been diminished due to the efforts of this project, however. So in conclusion, the program underscored the critical need for ongoing Narcan training sessions across all healthcare centers in Madison County. The project supported health centers by offering community training on Narcan use, helping both medical staff and community members recognize and respond effectively to opioid overdoses. And then finally, there's a significant need to spread awareness about opioid overdose response and to address and reduce the stigma associated with substance use disorders. Thank you so much for listening to our presentation. We have a lot of people to thank, as you can see in the corner here. Our references are there as well. And then if you'd like to contact us, please scan the QR code. Thank you so much for your time.

Narcan training

opioid crisis

community empowerment

Madison County

healthcare collaboration