Greg Clarkes - Rapid Response Guide to Opioid Emergencies

This guide is for everyone.

In the current opioid epidemic, opioid emergencies can arise without warning, in situations we didnt anticipate and among those we didnt expect to be affected.

If you are prepared, you can save lives.

You may be a member of the public. Maybe you are a coach, a teacher, a student, a worker in the hospitality industry, the safety officer in your sports club, or a family member of someone who uses prescription opioids or illicit drugs. Generally, you do not have the equipment or training to respond to opioid emergencies. This guide shows you how to prepare and what to do.

You may be a police, security, or corrections officer. You are often first on the scene of opioid emergencies. Some officers have on-the-job equipment and training for responding to opioid emergencies, including emergencies among coworkers from accidental opioid exposure. Many, however, do not. This guide shows you how to prepare and what to do.

You may be a community outreach worker. Community outreach workers are often experienced rescuers, with the knowledge and equipment to respond to opioid emergencies. This guide provides useful review for you. It also discusses possible gaps in safety protocols, and situations that pose particular risks to your personal safety from opioid exposure.

You may be a health-care provider in a hospital or in emergency services. You may be an emergency-room doctor, a unit nurse, or other medical staff in a hospital. Or you may be an emergency medical technician (EMT), a paramedic, a firefighter, or a police officer (depending on the training police receive in your jurisdiction). You are among the best prepared and best trained to respond to opioid emergencies. For you, this guide provides useful review. It also alerts you to situations that pose particular risks to your personal safety from opioid exposure.

You may be a health-care provider in a medical outpatient facility. Outpatient facilities provide dental, orthopedic, and eye surgeries, and other medical procedures. Any medical staff trained to administer opioids in caring for patients (e.g., for sedation or pain) is also trained and equipped to respond to opioid emergencies. For you, this guide provides useful review. For nonmedical assistants in your workplace, it provides crucial information.

You may work at a medical clinic in the community. Maybe you are a doctor, a nurse, or other staff in a medical office or walk-in clinic. Community medical clinics should be prepared for opioid emergencies, which can involve people in crisis brought in by friends or family. Many community medical clinics are not prepared. This guide provides the information you need.

You may be a home-care worker. Home-care workers who provide services to cancer or palliative patients may encounter opioid overdoses because of the pain medications their patients receive. Use this guide to make sure you have what you need and know what to do.

COVID-19 and this guide

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020. COVID-19 could continue as a serious public health threat until March 2022. As long as the threat lasts, everyone needs to take steps to protect themselves and to limit the transmission of the virus, including during response to opioid emergencies. Look for alerts like these in this guide: they provide specific advice on responding to opioid emergencies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The publisher, authors, contributors, and editors bring substantial expertise to this reference and have made their best efforts to ensure that it is useful, accurate, safe, and reliable.

Nonetheless, practitioners must always rely on their own experience, knowledge and judgment when consulting any of the information contained in this reference or employing it in patient care. When using any of this information, they should remain conscious of their responsibility for their own safety and the safety of others, and for the best interests of those in their care.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the publishers, the authors, the contributors nor the editors assume any liability for injury or damage to persons or property from any use of information or ideas contained in this reference.