TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — With the new year just around the corner, Sonoran Prevention Works is getting ready for a new year of trainings to bring more awareness for overdose prevention and response.
Throughout the past year, the Arizona Department of Health Services reports that 269 people in Pima County died from a drug overdose in 2022. But there's an organization in Arizona that is working to bring that number down.
"We teach them how to identify an overdose and how to administer naloxone," Christopher Thomas, the training and education manager at SPW, said. "And going into 2023 we'll be expanding our training and education programs to have more trainings online."
The team teaches how to administer the different forms of naloxone.
"We try to be very thorough so that way when people leave our trainings they feel comfortable using the injectable naloxone because it's the cheapest one that we have," Thomas said.
Kayla Kurti has worked at a syringe exchange for many years. And while she was there, Kurti saw the impacts of Naloxone first hand.
"This guy knew that he had to get his friend to the syringe exchange because he knew we could help him," she said. "Most of the people reversing overdoses are the people using drugs themselves."
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