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Winner of Multiple Awards fromo Our college. Our news. Our voice. Naugatuck Valley Community College December 1, 2018 Waterbury, Connecticut Vol. 62, Iss. 8 Narcan Training: Two Hours Well Spent omas Ackerman Last year, NVCC was one of several community size, and vicinity to high overdose areas. colleges to receive $10,000 in annual grant Edward Schreiner, manager of Stoll’s money, for education on opioids. This Pharmacy, on Grove Street, in Waterbury, was especially relevant given the current attends NVCC’s trainings, and other events, statewide and nationwide opioid crisis. to supply information and Naloxone prod- NVCC has designated part of the grant money uct. Schreiner said Grove Street has a reputa- toward monthly 2-hour trainings regarding tion for drug use and crime, but the pharmacy “Naloxone.” Often referred to by its common is never bothered because of the services they brand-name, “Narcan,” it is an overdose provide the community. He and other phar- reversal medicine. The trainings—off ered free- macists at Stoll’s require a permit to dispense of-charge to students, staff , and faculty—are the drug outside of the office, as he does at meant to educate attendees on opioid abuse Valente’s trainings. and how to use Narcan. Schreiner works with Valente to offer Professor Sandra Valente, Coordinator Narcan as cheaply as possible to attendees. He of NVCC’s Drug and Alcohol Recovery can dispense Narcan like any other drug, and Counselor Program, hosts the trainings. She attendees can use their insurance to pay. If a said the grant is gifted from the CT Healthy co-pay is expensive, Schreiner said something Campus Initiative. Valente is also a member can be worked out, as profi t is not the goal, such of Waterbury’s Opioid Task Force, along with as getting the Narcan for free, from Dr. Valente. first responders, treatment providers, and Schreiner lost a “very, very” close fam- Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary, who created ily member to addiction. The family thought the force. everything was under control, and the death 1,038 CT residents died in 2017 due to occurred shortly before Naloxone became well- heroin, morphine, and/or codeine detected known and available. “The goal is to keep that causes, according to data from the Office of Photos Courtesy of CDC person alive until they come to a realization CT’s Chief Medical Examiner. Valente men- they’ve had enough,” Schreiner said. He added public, I always carry my (Naloxone) bag now,” cost $3,500, while a kilogram of heroin may be tioned with some optimism that projected data, you can’t tell people to become sober. They have Rosado said. $50,000 to $65,000. She added the fentanyl-laced through the end of 2018, shows 1,032 deaths. to want it. Schreiner said he has prescribed The kit includes two 4 mg. nasal spray con- high is more potent, and consequently more She believes education, including the monthly multiple doses to an individual, due to them tainers, a set of plastic gloves, and a CPR face appealing to addicts, whether they became trainings at NVCC, is key to combatting over- using the product multiple times on the same shield. Rosado said the training included a pro- addicted through legal means or not. Another dose. Generally, between ten and thirty partic- loved one. cedure on identifying an overdosing person, goal of Valente’s training is to destigmatize ipants attend, almost every month, including Valente said some colleges with the CT the direction to call fi rst responders, and how addiction. To that end, she shares demographic DARC students, non-DARC students, faculty, Healthy Campus grant funding, have been to utilize the nasal spray. data. She said, in Waterbury, the typical opi- and staff . resistant to allowing Narcan trainings, despite Naloxone cannot cause overdose, Valente oid overdose victim is 30-59 years old, white, NVCC student Raymond appropriate faculty having certifications. A said. It has no eff ect on the brain, if there is no and male. The oldest patient from the data is 79 Christopher Rosado lost his college president or other administrator ulti- presence of opioids in the body. Narcan has a years old, while the youngest is seven months father to a drug overdose last mately determines whether trainings can stronger affi nity to the receptor site in the brain old, when a child found drugs on a table. February. Rosado attended occur. She said NVCC is lucky to have a sup- than opiates, Valente said, so it prevents the opi- Valente said Waterbury, and CT, are tar- the October training to bet- portive president. oid from binding there, temporarily reversing gets for opioid and drug traffi c because of its ter understand what happened. The fall semester’s final Narcan training the overdose. She added that opioids do not location along the I-95 corridor, which facili- He hopes to help others prevent will take place December 10th, from 6:00 – 8:00 metabolize immediately, but if there are enough tates North-South transportation. 32 percent a similar experience. “If I’m in pm in Kinney Hall Room 715. For information, opioids in the system, or if fentanyl is present, of local 9-1-1 initiated overdose interventions contact Dr. Valente: [email protected]. a person can start to overdose again, justifying do not involve Waterbury residents, the use of the second spray. but visitors coming to the city for It only takes While much coverage of the crisis has drugs. “Waterbury has a focused on legally dispensed opiate drugs very high overdose rate,” a little to enabling addiction, there is also a phenomenon Valente said, so aware- of drug dealers cutting product with cheaper ness of Narcan distribu- and deadlier drugs. These are often synthetic, tion is important because lose a lot. like fentanyl. of NVCC’s large campus Valente said a kilogram of fentanyl may Photo Courtesy of Duluth Police Department forced change. It is as if you can now breathe is a reminder of the diffi culty of immigrating, Though I spoke English, and understood Foreign Souls underwater. the sense that you do not belong, do not fi t in it well, I was told I could not receive the Daniela Ullauri There are few who can understand the and have to cleanse, to change to blend. level of education I deserved due to the fact Blending into a impact and power of these words from Julia Part of the challenge of blending into a that my fi rst language was not English. This country you were Alvarez in “Queens, 1963”: “Everyone seemed society is fi nding confi dence to change where destroyed my confi dence; I was convinced not born into is like more American/ than we, newly arrived/ for- needed, but still holding on to the parts and I could not succeed in this new country. trying to breathe eign dirt still on our soles” (1-3). The term for pieces of yourself that make you who you However, when I looked at my family and underwater; there immigrants does feel fi tting at times: aliens. We are. As an immigrant, it is easy to lose confi - saw that, despite this language barrier, they is nothing that are foreign, trying to make contact with a dif- dence, and to feel oppressed and stifl ed sim- were fi ghting and achieving success in this feels natural, and ferent life in a diff erent place, just trying to sur- ply by language. In the poem, “First Muse,” whole new life for us, I was inspired, like the overwhelming vive, like everyone else. When I immigrated to Alvarez writes of a language barrier blocking Alvarez by her muse. This is when I realized urge to take the United States at age fi fteen, I did not want her from her creativity, making her fear her my voice could be heard not just in one lan- that breath of to leave my home, but my family was leaving, creative expression. It stems from a statement guage, but in two. air, to resume normalcy, becomes almost so I too had to leave. by a “famous poet” that “One can only write Blending into another country can intolerable. Being an immigrant, I know I had foreign dirt on my soles when I poems in the tongue /in which one fi rst said bring many obstacles, but our unique routes this diffi culty, and it is that empathy, that arrived, as if that dirt came from my core, and Mother,” (1-3). This ideology muddled Alvarez through those obstacles are what give us our experience, that makes two poems by it served as a remnant of my home in a place into thinking her voice is only heard in one lan- stories, and make us stronger. In the poems, Julia Alvarez, “Queens, 1963,” and “First that certainly was not home. Alvarez encap- guage; it made her question whether she could “Queens, 1963” and “First Muse,” Julia Muse,” so impacting. From vivid details, sulates so many of those feelings with her use pursue what she loves. Alvarez speaks of the difficulties of immi- to the poet’s expressions and emotion in of imagery and diction in “Queens, 1963”. The Like her, I was faced with a language bar- gration, but does so in a way that makes the the language—the heart of the poems—I dirt on her soles is an analogy for what she, rier that felt crippling, and at times oppres- reader hope. Hope for people to be more eas- understand it all too well.