The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources’ (DHHR) Bureau for Behavioral Health (BBH) and Office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP) and the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) have released the WV Naloxone Guide for School Nurses.
The guide was developed in response to the increasing rise in fatal overdoses among youth. In August of 2022, ODCP published provisional data that displayed that 1,507 West Virginia lives were lost to an overdose fatality in 2021. As of September 2022, 729 overdoses among adolescents are suspected per EMS data.
This guide provides information on emergency protocols in schools for administering naloxone. Information on how to access, administer, and store naloxone is included. The guide includes a policy template that counties can utilize when establishing protocols for naloxone distribution, training, and usage in West Virginia schools.
The naloxone guide for school nurses was presented on November 11, 2022 at the West Virginia Association of School Nurses Annual Fall Conference, where training and naloxone kits were distributed. Twenty counties have implemented or are in the process of implementing the school naloxone guide.