UAMS observes Overdose Awareness Week, hands out naloxone kits

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – To mark Overdose Awareness Week, UAMS is giving hospital staff life-saving tools; guaranteeing every employee has access to medication that can reverse an overdose.

Free Naloxone kits were given out to employees as part of an effort to combat overdose deaths. The center was ready with 2,000 kits and hoped to clear the tables by the end of the day, with employees able to take one or two kits each, if needed.

Friday’s event was hosted by the UAMS Center for Addiction Services and Treatment.

Those with the Center say these kits make a difference and staff members equipped with them can save lives.

“UAMS employees are all over the community, ” Dr. Michael Mancino explained, “and so we wanted as many people as possible to have access to Naloxone in case they come across a person who’s overdosed.”

For clinic manager Peggy Healy, it was an especially impactful day as she remembered her son who passed from an overdose.

“The increase in overdoses really was high,” she said. “It has come down, thank God, because of Naloxone and we’re so happy to be able to do this.”

Last year, 510 Arkansans lost their lives to drug overdoses, a 13.7% decline compared to 2022. Naloxone and other opioid-reversal drugs are credited with much of that decrease.

Healy said this is the second year UAMS has handed out the kits and they hope to make it a yearly tradition on overdose awareness day.

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