When he first learned about a Narcan training at Hook Hall in Northwest D.C. on Thursday afternoon, Markele Thompson was intrigued.
He works at a restaurant in the city, and said he believes it’s important to learn how to administer the opioid-reversal medication when working as part of a team.
“It can help a lot, because a lot of situations in restaurants, you don’t know who’s sick or who’s going through something, so you most definitely want to have Narcan and training on-site,” Thompson said.
He was one of about a dozen restaurant industry workers who attended Thursday’s session, which aimed to equip them with the knowledge needed to potentially save a life, should the opportunity arise.
About 200 restaurants across the city have already ordered overdose response kits through a partnership between Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington and D.C.’s Department of Behavioral Health.
I-shi Patterson Stuart, vice president of operations and administration with RAMW, said many other restaurants are still considering to order the kits or waiting for them to come in the mail.
They’re free for any D.C. restaurant and can be ordered online or picked up at local pharmacies.
“We definitely want to make sure that our restaurants and … people visiting the restaurants, are safe and are able to get the help that they need as fast as possible,” Patterson Stuart said.
During the hourlong session, attendees learned about opioids and the symptoms of an opioid overdose. They also learned how to administer naloxone, the generic form of Narcan, and were told what to expect when treating someone with the potentially live-saving nasal spray.
Anna Valero, who owns Hook Hall, said the timing of the training was particularly important, because chances of recreational drug use and crises typically spike around the holidays.
“We’re very aware of the fact that we are entering the holiday season, and the holiday season is always associated with a time of high stress,” Valero said.
When she first got involved with the initiative, Valero said it was focused on getting fentanyl test strips into nightlife venues. But because there were so many positives, people started not to trust them, and the goals of the campaign shifted.
“It was because 98% of the drugs that were on the streets in D.C. were testing positive for fentanyl,” Valero said. “So they pivoted the initiative to really be about: How can we use Naloxone/Narcan in order to ensure that when people were taking drugs that they were able to reverse the effects of the overdose?”
Restaurants and bars don’t know what people may be taking before they come in, Valero said, but “knowing that oftentimes the drugs that folks are taking aren’t hitting them until after they’re within our four walls.”
But Valero is expecting the training to help restaurant staff, too, because, “In our industry, there is a higher rate of recreational drug use and mental health issues than in other industries.”
Some restaurants were initially skeptical of keeping Narcan on hand, worrying their license may be impacted if an employee had to administer it, Valero said. Workers may fear repercussions for administering it, she said.
However, because there are no consequences for people who administer it or businesses that carry it, Valero said, “What we’ve come to find is that it’s so easy to learn how to use Narcan that everyone’s open to it.”
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