Alexander Cook’s older brother, Daniel, died earlier this year as a result of an opioid overdose. Cook was devastated, but at the same time he had long since come to terms with the fact that in some ways, the person that he knew and loved had already been gone for some time.
“It’s heartbreaking because (addiction) really changes people,” said Cook, the youth engagement coordinator for Unite! Washougal, a nonprofit organization that supports youth and guides healthy choices. “There was a sense of loss before he passed away — a loss of who he was … who we hadn’t seen in a long time. It was a heartbreaking sense of loss, a sense of helplessness, in a lot of ways, with wanting to be there, wanting to help, but not knowing how.”
That’s why Cook works every day to make sure that nobody else has to feel the grief, anguish and sense of helplessness that he felt for so many years. And that’s why he’s proud to work for Unite! Washougal, which is partnering with the Washougal School District to implement a variety of educational activities and prevention measures to combat youth opioid misuse, which has increased locally and nationally in the last several years.
“This is a big problem, and big problems require big solutions,” Unite! Washougal Margaret McCarthy told the Washougal School Board in June. “They require all of us to work together. It’s about partnerships.”
The Washougal School Board approved a policy in October that states the district will seek to obtain and maintain at least one set of opioid overdose reversal medication doses in every one of its schools.
“Four or five nurses had already been trained and had the (medication),” Washougal Assistant Superintendent Aaron Hansen said. “Now we’re planning to have the nurses train other staff members. We’re identifying which staff members will receive the training and have the naloxone available just in case it is needed.”
Board President Cory Chase said that the medication should be placed in all of the district’s schools and not just Washougal High School, as the first draft of the policy stated.
“It’s unfortunate that we’re talking about this,” he said during an October board meeting, “but it’s reality.”
The district is using naloxone, a medication that can reverse an overdose from opioids, including heroin, fentanyl, and prescription opioid medications. Often given as a nasal spray, it can quickly reverse an overdose by blocking the effects of opioids and restore normal breathing within 2 to 3 minutes in a person whose breath has slowed or even stopped.
“Just in case something was to happen, we now have a product in all of our buildings that can save a life,” Hansen said. “If we get to a point where we need to use this medication because of a potentially life-threatening situation, we have it.”
The district has “not had any students, staff or visitors on campus who were suspected of an opioid-related overdose at any school,” according to Les Brown, the district’s director of communications and technology.
