Butler County Health Department offers Narcan and nonjudgemental support to those struggling with addiction in Poplar Bluff through the CDC’s Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) program.
“This is a great program that we have that is reaching the community. That’s our biggest goal, is to reach the community to help people find resources for addiction — and we do Narcan, so that’s a big thing to help save lives,” said heath educator Amy Bland, who runs the program.
OD2A started several years ago after BCHD and John Hopkins University collaborated on a presentation about opiates for Sen. Roy Blunt and received federal funding for the program.
OD2A facilitates education and drug abuse prevention, and distributes Narcan and other resources by building relationships with community members.
As such, BCHD gives out Narcan not only to emergency responders, but to those wrestling with addiction themselves or to their loved ones. Some people are still reluctant to go into a government building for Narcan, Bland said, but more and more Butler County residents have realized there is no judgment or ulterior motive. OD2A simply wants to help.
“We have some community members that just come up here to get it just in case, and I think that’s amazing — that they know that this is here, that they can come and get it, and if they do have a situation they can save a life,” Bland said.
Narcan is an opioid agonist, meaning it blocks opioid receptors in the brain, reversing an overdose for up to an hour and a half and allowing time for the victim to get proper medical care, said the National Institute on Drug Abuse. A count provided by BCHD revealed Missouri experienced 1,980 overdose deaths between March 2020 and March 2021, representing a 19.6% increase from the previous year. 1,470 of those deaths were opioid-related.
Meanwhile, Butler County listed around 30 overdose deaths in 2021. All were caused by fentanyl, an opioid, or fentanyl combined with methamphetamine.
OD2A sees the most traffic at community outreach days, when people do not need to visit the Butler County Health Center and can simply walk up to their booth and find the resources they need. The BCHD provides Narcan at these events and teaches visitors how to use it. Bland also speaks to high school students through the Smart Moves, Smart Choices drug prevention program, and BCHC is distributing information packets with questions, digital resources and rehab referrals to women’s clinics. Bland said they are working on packets for standard doctor’s offices too.
“It has a whole bunch of referrals in it too, and has treatment centers. There’s just a lot of information in it for them,” she said.
The program also partners with over a dozen community organizations including the Community Resource Council (CRC), police and fire departments, SEMO Drug Task Force and local ministries.
Bland looks forward to further expanding OD2A in Butler County and hopefully, as the COVID pandemic winds down, holding more community outreach events. She wants word to get out as far as possible about the program and how it can help.
“I started working here and took this position, I didn’t even know this was part of the health department. I had no idea,” she said. “So I would like for everybody to know, I’d like to really get it out.”
BCHD and OD2A operate out of the Butler County Health Center at 1619 N. Main St. in Poplar Bluff. More information is available on the BCHD website at butlercountyhealth.org and by contacting 573-785-8478 or info@butlercountyhealth.org.