Project Gabe is coming to Haines. Project Gabe is a state program geared towards making Naloxone kits available to the Alaskan industrial workforce.
Naloxone is a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose. Project Gabe was started recently by Sitka nurse Denise Ewing after her son Gabe died from an opioid overdose on January 24th of this year. She channeled the energy of her grief towards making the lifesaving kits available to the commercial fishing workforce, placing the kits on fishing boats and in processing plants. The project has now expanded statewide, and is placing the kits in businesses, hotels and mining camps, anywhere with a substantial workforce, who may be using substances to cope with long hours and pain. Young men in their twenties and early thirties are the population most at risk of dying from an opioid overdose.
Here is Denise Ewing:” Anybody who has an opioid addiction, just asking them to stop isn’t enough, but having the tools there, and saying OK, I’ll meet you where you are at, i have tools that can help”
Naloxone is an opioid antagonist. This means that it attaches to opioid receptors and reverses and blocks the effects of other opioids. Naloxone can quickly restore normal breathing to a person if their breathing has slowed or stopped because of an opioid overdose. And it has no effect on someone who does not have opioids in their system. Examples of opioids include heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine, and morphine.
In a conversation with KHNS, Haines police chief Heath Scott confirmed the effectiveness of naloxone. His officers have carried the medicine with them on patrols for a few years, and on at least two occasions have used it to save a life. The kits consist of an easy to use nasal spray, and can be rapidly administered.
According to a CDC website, there were 160 fatal overdoses in Alaska in 2020, and Ewing says preliminary data for 2021 suggest a 92% increase in opioid deaths. Project Gabe has so far placed about 250 kits in SE Alaska, and over 300 statewide. Denise Ewing has already received reports of the kits saving lives. And she is working on a system to gather more rigorous data.
Denise Ewing attended the meeting in Haines, which she said included local school, government and business representatives, who will be the ones implementing her vision of placing naloxone kits next to other lifesaving equipment such as AED, medical kits or fire extinguishers.
You can find some links here, the updated numbers for opioid death, and a recording of our conversation with Denise Ewing below.