New naloxone partnership project aims to save more lives

It started with a conversation with our partners at Ottawa Public Health (OPH).

How could police help to stem the tide of a rising opioid epidemic?

Every week, Ottawa Police Service (OPS) officers were encountering an alarming number of people with telltale blue lips and in cardiac arrest after an opioid overdose.

And despite best efforts by community partners and first responders, the crisis has continued.

Together, OPS Drug Unit Staff Sergeant James McGarry and OPH Program Manager, Sexual Health and Harm Reduction Services Kira Mandryk, worked on a plan to supplement emergency aid provided by first responders to those experiencing an overdose. Like other life-threatening medical events, early intervention during an opioid overdose is critical to life-saving efforts.

Together, with support from the Ontario Ministry of Health, the OPS and OPH are providing frontline officers with additional live-saving naloxone kits for distribution to those living with opioid use and to those who care for them.

“The province supplies naloxone kits to public health agencies in an effort to save lives,” said S/Sgt. McGarry. “But we also wanted to be able to help provide them to family and loved ones of those who were vulnerable.”

The pilot program, launched last year in August, provides naloxone kits to frontline officers, who in turn also hand them out to people they meet on calls for service.  The number of kits used and locations of distribution are recorded by officers to help identify areas where further outreach and intervention will be most impactful.  Since launching the pilot officers have distributed 76 naloxone kits to residents at risk of overdose or their family and friends. 

In 2020, the OPS responded to 542 calls for someone experiencing an overdose; 84 people lost their lives that year. And those numbers keep increasing. In 2021 officers responded to 622 overdose calls; in 2022 there were 668 such calls. So far in 2023, there have been 194 calls for service relating to an overdose, with 24 people losing their lives.

Constable John Flores was instrumental in providing training to OPS frontline officers, stocking the kits at various OPS facilities, and monitoring use.

Since 2020, officers have used naloxone 319 times, saving lives. Responding officers insert the naloxone into the nose of the person experiencing the overdose and spray it into their nasal canals. It helps to stabilize the person until paramedics arrive and attend to them.

“I’ve been to incidents where essentially people come back to life after administering naloxone, it’s really something to see when they’re pretty much on the brink of death and they are revived,” said Cst. Flores. “And it doesn’t matter where you live in this city, opioid use is affecting families in the suburbs, downtown, or even out in rural areas.”

While this initiative is focused primarily on frontline patrol officers, S/Sgt. McGarry says there are plans to expand it to the Service’s Neighbourhood Resource Teams in the future and perhaps beyond.

“The main goal of this work is to reduce the harm that illicit substances have on our community,” said S/Sgt. McGarry. “We want to support the work of our partners and OPH to help save lives.”