By Dave Sutor
The Tribune-Democrat
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Dr. Frank Kunkel needed only about a minute to assemble a Narcan nasal spray and demonstrate how to administer the opioid antidote during a training seminar on Friday night.
He called the process “simple.”
But properly using the drug, which can immediately reverse the effects of an overdose, is not the difficult part, rather overcoming the negative attitude toward addicts is the challenge, according to the chief medical officer for Accessible Recovery Services.
“I don’t think it’s hard to learn how to use Narcan,” said Kunkel, who taught the owners of about a half-dozen local dining and drinking establishments how to use Narcan during the event at Bulldog Arena in downtown Johnstown. “I do think that a lot of places what you experience is the ongoing stigma and bias against these patients.”
ARS also handed out free Narcan kits to attendees.
The goal is to provide the bar and restaurant owners the antidote and the knowledge of how to use it in order to help addicts who overdose while shooting up heroin – often in bathrooms – where they seek privacy away from other people and security cameras.
“Maybe a bar/restaurant might not want to be identified as somebody that has Narcan there,” Kunkel said. “But that’s – I think – a foolish thing because if people are going to do drugs in their bathroom, No. 1, it’s not their fault. And, No. 2, it would be better off to save a life than to have to call the coroner to their bar or restaurant.”
Deanna Trio-Schompert, manager of Shotziz Highwater Bar and Grill in Old Conemaugh Borough, explained why she attended, saying, “It’s a life, so we should get trained in case it would happen in our place because it’s happened obviously at other public places.”
Tess Bradley, a drug and alcohol educator with Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, said Narcan is “giving us more ammunition to fight this epidemic, which is causing so many deaths. I think it’s going to be really amazing to have more people, more places out there having this.”
Kate Porter, Cambria County Drug Coalition’s prevention program specialist, complimented ARS for holding the training session and thinks “we need many more like it.”
Copyright 2017 The Tribune-Democrat