St. Joe’s to join other area universities in equipping officers with Narcan
St. Joe’s will soon join other local universities responding to Philadelphia’s opioid crisis by equipping certain members of university communities with naloxone (Narcan), the lifesaving drug used to temporarily reverse an overdose.
Arthur Grover, director of Public Safety and Security, said steps have been taken to equip St. Joe’s public safety officers in supervisory roles with Narcan.
“We have trained all of our supervisory personnel to be certified to administer Narcan,” Grover said. “We are awaiting medical approval for our prescriptions for legal purchase of Narcan. We anticipate this approval and delivery shortly.”
Frank Greenagel II, a professor at Rutgers University and an expert in the recovery field, said providing employees on campus with Narcan is an important step in response to the epidemic.
“[Narcan] provides quick access to lifesaving medication that is very affordable, reduces risk and liability, which should please the legal and/or risk management departments,” Greenagel said. “It shows the entire Saint Joseph’s community and greater Philadelphia area that our esteemed university takes this issue very seriously.”
Patti Esnouf, administrative assistant for the Office of Mission Programs and a member of the campus recovery group, The Flock, said she thinks Narcan should be as accessible in buildings as fire extinguishers.
“Anything to save a life,” Esnouf said. “Why would you not have [Narcan] there?”
Griffin Henry ’19, a trained EMT with a family member in recovery, said access to Narcan is not only a city issue but a campus one as well. In Philadelphia, about 1,200 people died last year of a drug overdose. In March, the city’s health commissioner urged residents to begin carrying naloxone.
“We think, ‘it could never happen to me or someone I love or one of my friends,’ but it creeps up,” Henry said. “If I was a freshman and one of my suitemates overdosed and I didn’t know what was going on, I’d call Public Safety. If they don’t know what was going on, the person is going to die. That is just a shame because it’s so easy to be trained on it and know what you’re doing.”
Peter Clark, S.J., Ph.D., professor of medical ethics and director of St. Joe’s Institute of Clinical Bioethics, said he thinks it is acceptable for campus public safety officers to carry Narcan as long as the officers are properly trained by medical professionals.
“Narcan saves lives and the sanctity of life is a cornerstone of Catholic Social Teaching,” Clark said.
At Temple and Drexel universities, equipping members of the community with Narcan is also about assisting neighbors who reside in areas of Philadelphia with high rates of overdoses.
In May, Temple created a task force focused on opioid and related drug use and recovery support. The university also began equipping Temple Police and Student Health Services with Narcan.
“Temple uses a variety of prevention and intervention techniques related to opioid addiction,” said Christopher Vito, associate director of Temple University Public Relations in an email, adding that the university continues “to monitor the ongoing opioid crisis and its potential impact on the university community.”
The Temple Student Government passed a resolution last December calling for the Wellness Resource Center, along with other university departments, to teach students how to administer Narcan.
Drexel University College of Medicine has created a Narcan Outreach Program in neighborhoods such as Kensington, the ground zero of the city’s opioid epidemic, to increase access to, education around and confidence about prevention and revival.
At St. Joe’s, Katie Bean, director of the Wellness, Alcohol and Drug Education (WADE) Program, said university community members who want to carry Narcan can do so on their own.
“Having Narcan can help stop someone from overdosing and help save their life,” Bean said. “We should do that. Everyone should do that.”
That advice works for Esnouf, who carries the antidote herself.
“I think everyone should have [Narcan] in their purses, in their cars, everywhere,” Esnouf said. “I could be walking down Broad Street and see someone falling over. I would want to have one.”
In May, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, M.D., issued a standing prescription order for all Pennsylvania residents that allows anyone to obtain a two milligram dose auto injector of Narcan without a doctor’s order.
Locally, Narcan is available at the CVS on City Avenue as well as at Dake’s Drug Store near the corner of 54th Street and City Avenue in Merion Station.
Steve Theodorou, a pharmacist at Dake’s, said he saw foot traffic pick up when the drug first became available, but it has since died down.
Theodorou said he has also observed the positive impact the state’s standing prescription order has had on out-of-pocket costs for customers. Most private insurance plans, as well as Medicare and Medicaid, will cover the costs of the antidote, he said.
“It’ll be whatever someone has for their prescription coverage,” Theodorou said. “If they had to pay cash, it’s kind of expensive. I think it’s like $140 for the nasal spray. But more often than not it’s covered by Medicare, Medicaid and then the private ones.”
The City of Philadelphia offers trainings in administering Narcan several times a month in both the North Philadelphia and Center City Philadelphia areas. The city also provides on its website written instructions and virtual trainings for how to administer Narcan.
But Justin Stout ’19, a member of the Opioid Task Force in the Institute for Clinical Bioethics, cautioned against members of the university community equipping themselves with Narcan.
“Although the drug saves the person’s life, there is no way to determine how they will act afterwards,” Stout said. “I would say that since campus is close enough to Lankenau [Medical Center] I would just call EMS and have them transport the patients to the hospital themselves. EMS will administer Narcan en route and can monitor their vitals and ensure that they cannot just immediately go out and find their next dose.”
Esnouf said he worries about whether someone will use again—the pushback she anticipates in the debate about who should carry Narcan—should not even be a consideration.
“I don’t care if you have to give Narcan to someone 999 times,” Esnouf said. “It could be that 1,000th time they decide to stop. You just don’t let someone die because they are going to go out and use again.”
