Hot Springs Fire offers training for drug overdoses

The Hot Springs Fire Department sponsored a public training session recently for identifying and administering emergency treatment of suspected opioid overdoses.

Plains law enforcement officer Jason Acheson was instrumental in organizing the community training session and bringing awareness of the current epidemic of opioid overdoses, not only in Montana, but throughout the United States.

Officer Acheson invited local EMS training company, Whitline Consulting CEO John Calbom and assistant trainer Emmitt Tucker to conduct the training. Calbom has been training EMT classes for over 25 years throughout Montana with this type of class being the first of its kind in Sanders County. He hopes to be able to expand the training sessions into other parts of Sanders County.

Acheson opened the class with statistics on the amounts of illegal drugs being used in Western Montana and how it is affecting individuals using illicit drugs as well as the impact of the local emergency services.

The current drugs of choice are heroin, opioids, methamphetamines, and cocaine and are the fourth-leading cause of injury deaths in Montana. More than 100 people are dying every year from drug overdoses in Montana with opioids listed as a causative agent in 53% of overdose deaths from 2019-20.

Amy Gray, a Hot Springs EMS, spoke about how many of the rural communities have been affected by increased demands of their emergency services. Most of the rural emergency services are an all-volunteer staff, taking time out of their lives to give service to their communities. Respond times in rural areas depend on many factors, such as location of incident within their jurisdiction, availability of volunteers, and the time of day or night.

Many volunteer emergency organizations in Montana are seeing a decline in recruitment and are struggling to cover shifts for a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week commitment.

The training covered how to detect the symptoms of an overdose, when to administer Naloxone and how to administer it. Symptoms can include pinpoint pupils and respiratory distress.

Additional instruction included the dangers of fentanyl, which is being used as an additive with other illegal drugs to enhance the high. Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a pain relief and anesthetic. It is about 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. Fentanyl can be deadly to touch in even very small amounts.

The training session was very well attended with over 26 present. Those individuals completing the training, will now be able to receive two free Naloxone nasal sprays that can be replaced at no charge when used.