Edmonton to expand naloxone training for some city employees

With Edmonton being the epicentre of Alberta’s deadly opioid crisis, city councillors decided to expand naloxone training to more city employees to stop overdoses.

“If you have first-aid training, if you can do CPR, why shouldn’t you be able to do that?” asked Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack.

More than half of Alberta’s opioid deaths happen in the capital city.

Right now, only some workers are trained to use the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone, including peace officers, firefighters, and select transit employees.

On Monday, city councillors – who were returning from their summer break – stopped short of expanding that training to any city employee who wants it.

Instead, they settled on a pilot project with transit inspectors.

A city report has raised concerns about safety and liability, including risks of exposure to opioids and potential altercations with those who are revived.

But medical professionals who treat addiction say those concerns are overblown.

“There is no risk to being exposed to opioids, unless you’re actively snorting it, smoking it, or injecting it into yourself,” said Dr. Sumantra Monty Ghosh, from the University of Alberta’s faculty of medicine. “If you’re a bystander, and you’re walking by and someone is smoking it by you, nothing will happen to you.”

The union representing city employees says while it supports expanded harm reduction, it wants its workers to be safe.

“In the event that voluntary naloxone training is provided to employees — many of whom are our members — there must be very robust safeguards in place,” said Bryce Jowett, the president of Civic Service Union 52. “Employees must be able to decline training, free of coercion or consequences.”

Regarding the high number of opioid deaths in Edmonton, the mayor says he is still working with the province on other solutions, pointing to a $30 million provincial announcement earlier this month for more treatment beds.

Though Knack says there is always more to be done.

“There’s still a lot of work that needs to happen on detox, a lot of work that needs to happen on recovery, housing options,” he said.

While supervised consumption sites have been closed in Red Deer and Calgary, the province has previously pledged not to close Edmonton’s remaining site at this time.

Dr. Ghosh says this is important due to the city’s changing drug supply.

RELATED: Alberta closing supervised drug consumption site at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital

“In Edmonton we still have our supervised consumption sites because we are still in crisis,” Ghosh said.

“And this is a key solution as well because it’s a space where people can use safely and then access additional supports if they require. Right now in Lethbridge and Calgary, people do not have a space to go to, they’re probably using outside, we’re telling them not to use alone.”

Councillors will hear more on expanded naloxone training in October.

–With files from Darcy Ropchan