Make overdose education mandatory in B.C. schools amid drug emergency, advocates say

When a teenage girl collapsed on the SkyTrain in Coquitlam, B.C., passengers calling 911 thought she had fainted or was having an epileptic seizure.

It was only when paramedics administered naloxone that some realized she’d overdosed on an opioid, said Chloe Goodison, who was sitting beside her.

“She shot back to life,” recalled Goodison, who was jarred by the thought that a girl who seemed about her own age of 16 could have died, with no one around her immediately able to help.

It was a life-changing moment for Goodison, who would be inspired to study health sciences and set up a group called NaloxHome that educates high school students about what an overdose looks like and how to use naloxone.

The Simon Fraser University student is among a number of advocates who deliver overdose education in B.C. schools but want such information made a mandatory part of the curriculum.

They say it is a matter of urgency in a province that has suffered more than

10,000 deaths since it declared the toxic drug supply to be a public health emergency in April 2016.

“In my head, I was thinking, ‘There’s no way. She’s someone who’s around 16 and looks like she’s from an average Coquitlam school and household,”’ Goodison said of the experience on her way home in August 2017.

“She was saved by paramedics, but I just always reflect on what if someone on that train knew anything about the signs of an overdose or was carrying naloxone? We were already into an overdose emergency, and nobody knew anything about an overdose.”

Goodison focused on public health at Simon Fraser, from where she won a community project grant for NaloxHome, which is part of a plan approved by the local health authority, Fraser Health.

Since its launch last year, NaloxHome has recruited 30 volunteers and given presentations to about 2,000 students at high schools in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody through an arrangement with the school district, Goodison said.

She is hoping to expand the presentations to Burnaby this fall but wants students across B.C. to have access to similar information.

“My dream would be for this to one day be taken out of my hands and taken on by the Education Ministry,” Goodison said.

Leslie McBain, whose 25-year-old son, Jordan Miller, fatally overdosed in 2014, is co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm, a national group whose members also speak at schools to address issues like overdose prevention and harm reduction.

That includes not using drugs alone and how to administer naloxone, which is available for free at pharmacies and some health-care facilities in B.C.

“I would like the Ministry of Education to mandate secondary schools to have speakers or education on drug use and experimentation. There’s a lot of different reasons for kids to take drugs,” said McBain, who has also recently spoken with students at a middle school in her community on the Gulf Islands.

However, she said there are not enough advocates to do presentations at schools so it’s up to the province to make overdose education part of the curriculum.

McBain said she wrote to a former education minister about those concerns years ago but did not get a response and will now be contacting the current minister, Jennifer Whiteside.

The Education Ministry said it’s up to each school district to determine the delivery of any programs, including whether to stock naloxone kits or train teachers how to use them.

“This September, our ministry will share with school districts information that includes a risk assessment tool that supports schools and districts in determining whether to stock naloxone, how to order naloxone kits and where to access training on administering naloxone,” it said in a written statement.