New Hampshire Insurance Company Trains Workers on Overdose Reversal Drug

Employees at one of New Hampshire’s community mental health centers are getting trained to administer overdose reversal drugs.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care on Friday held a training session for employees at Riverbend Community Mental Health in Concord as part of its efforts to fight the opioid epidemic. Participants learned how to use the nasal spray form of naloxone.

Dr. Bill Brewster, the insurance company’s vice president for New Hampshire, says naloxone should be as readily available as fire extinguishers or defibrillators in the workplace.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who visited New Hampshire last week, has said the widespread use of overdose reversal drugs is key to ending the drug crisis. Earlier this year, he issued a rare public health advisory calling on more Americans to carry naloxone.