As fentanyl moves in, even taxi drivers need to know how to save users, group says

Debby Warren wants everyone, from taxi drivers to emergency shelter workers, to be educated about the fentanyl crisis in New Brunswick and how to help someone who is suffering from an overdose.

The executive director of AIDS Moncton is part of one of the five working groups in New Brunswick taking a closer look at the opioid and how the province should move forward in education, prevention and treatment.  

"Our province and our community is not immune from this fentanyl crisis, which is a public health issue," Warren told Information Morning Moncton.

We need to  start looking in our community for people to be trained — even if it's taxi drivers right? People who might come in touch with people who may have overdosed.- Debby Warren, AIDS Moncton

"Having known people who have unfortunately overdosed because of fentanyl ... it's close to our agency and we just want to make sure that we work with the collective group to try to avoid those types of deaths in the future."

Warren said members of the RCMP and paramedics have been trained in the effects of fentanyl and have naloxone kits available to counter an overdose, but immediate training is needed for those who are on the "front lines."

"The front-line service providers could be the people that are working in the emergency shelters, street outreach and of course our staff at the needle distribution service," she said.

"Even in the schools, teachers need to be aware. We're not immune from drug use — it's complicated."

Warren said groups like hers would like to see government move faster, but she believes the province is sincere in its efforts to come up with a plan to deal with fentanyl.

​"In the meantime, we need to start looking in our community for people to be trained — even if it's taxi drivers, right? People who might come in touch with people who may have overdosed."

Let's have some action

Warren also plans to spend time sitting down with addicts and their families to find out what they need to help them avoid an overdose.

At her first working group meeting she realized that people who use drugs were not included on the initial list of those who need to be consulted.

"Sometimes what tends to happen with government and those of us in community [support], we tend to think we know what's best for them but ... we need to make sure that people who use the drug are on that list," Warren said.

"It was just a preliminary list, but they should have been at the top of the list so we need to make sure that the people that we serve — how do we best reach then and support them because it's the harm that comes to them ultimately."

Warren also hopes to find some funding to acquire naloxone kits for community organizations and for families who are concerned about a loved one.

AIDS Moncton, AIDS Saint John and AIDS New Brunswick collectively serve more than 2,000 drug users with their needle exchange program, and Warren hopes that by speaking with those clients she will be able to bring their voices to the conversation.

"We will go and talk to those people that we serve to have them advise us, so that when I go back, I'm not speaking of what we think they need, we'll be able to speak and make sure that we're gearing the work towards their needs."