Health Unit Partners With Essex Fire And Rescue Services To Supply Emergency Vehicles With Naloxone

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The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit has partnered with Essex Fire and Rescue Services to expand access and the use of naloxone during emergency overdose responses involving opioids. Naloxone is a drug that can temporarily reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

The partnership is part of the Ontario Naloxone Program.

Following this partnership, Essex Fire and Rescue Services emergency vehicles will be stocked with naloxone kits. Firefighters will also have emergency kits available on-hand while responding to emergency calls and can administer the nasal spray to community members when first on the scene of an opioid overdose. Essex Fire and Rescue Services joins Windsor Fire and Rescue Services, the Amherstburg Fire Department, Essex-Windsor EMS, Windsor Police Services, and Lasalle Police Service as the sixth emergency medical service organization to partner with the WECHU in this naloxone program.

As part of the onboarding process, Essex Fire and Rescue Services will receive training, naloxone kits, and ongoing support to administer naloxone to people who are at risk of an opioid overdose.

The program has been growing since its launch and there are now 26 ONP partners in total across Windsor-Essex County, with 7 new partners onboarded this year.