KENNEBUNK — The Kennebunk Police Department, in partnership with the City of Portland Public Health Division’s Overdose Prevention Project, is pleased to announce the members of the Kennebunk Rotary Club will be trained in Recognizing and Responding to an Opiate/Heroin Overdose.
Training will be fr0om 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 9 at the West Kennebunk Fire Department, 80 Thompson Road in West Kennebunk.
This training is in response to the opiate epidemic sweeping across our country, where Maine and our communities are not immune. Maine saw 376 drug-induced deaths statewide in 2016, 317 of which were opioid related.
The Kennebunk Rotary Club, along with Rotary District 7780 recognizes the need for us to work together as a society to make a difference and help fight this epidemic. Rotarians will be trained in how to recognize the signs of an overdose, how to perform first-aid, to include chest compression only CPR, as well as how to administer naloxone (the drug which reverses the affects of opioids).
The goal of this training is not only for life-saving purposes, it will hopefully help reduce the stigma attached to those with substance use disorder.
Training will also be offered to community members with the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel communities and to all 40 Rotary clubs within District 7780, and then to communities and clubs represented in Maine and New Hampshire.
Anyone with questions or requests for additional information are asked to contact Chief Bob MacKenzie at the Kennebunk Police Department or email him at rmackenzie@kennebunkmaine.us.
For more information about obtaining naloxone or to schedule an Overdose Recognition and Response training with Portland’s Overdose Prevention Project, please contact Bridget Rauscher at 874-8798 or bridget.rauscher@portlandmaine.gov.
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