HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – Friday was all about education and prevention at BrightView in Harrisonburg. It teamed up with the Central Shenandoah Health District to give community members free Narcan training and education.
This is part of CSHD REVIVE! program.
“We thought what a great way to launch awareness for overdose,” Mick Ruggiero, director of outreach for northern Virginia at BrightView said.
Ruggiero said the turnout was great and enough to where they hope to offer this event again in the future.
”Educated now, if they’re ever in the scenario where they find someone in need of reviving from an overdose, they’ve now been trained and have the ability to do so,” Ruggiero said.
Ruggiero mentioned that overdose is still an epidemic and this is a way they hope to help curve the numbers.
“It is important that just average citizens have the ability to respond to a crisis situation if need be, whether it be within their own family or just within their community and neighborhood,” Ruggiero said.
Ruggiero said one community member showed up today and said he had witnessed two overdoses in his community so he wanted to come out and get the training and tools to help prevent that from happening in the future.
If you’re interested in getting trained and having access to this program, Ruggiero says to call CSHD or your local health district. He said this is a big asset to the community as Narcan can be expensive and hard to come by.
“In the state of Virginia there is an executive order in place where anyone can get a prescription, as a standing prescription per se, for Narcan but they would be paying out of their pocket or through their insurance, well this is free,” Ruggiero said.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, Ruggiero said BrightView is a no barriers access treatment facility that can help.
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