WESTFIELD — Could Westfield high school students, even those not on the path to health care jobs, be trained to administer a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose?
Suhanee Mitragotri, a neuroscience, and global health and health policy student at Harvard University, wants to make that a reality. Her naloxone training initiative aims to bring education on the drug, also known by the brand name Narcan, to high schools across the state.
“We lose so many people every year to opioid overdoses in Massachusetts,” said Mitragotri. “Naloxone really is a pivotal tool in harm reduction and saving lives. Teaching people about how to use naloxone is incredibly important because so many high school students don’t even know what naloxone is, and it’s such a valuable tool.”
The initiative is a collaboration between her and Dr. Scott Weiner, an emergency medicine specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and comes out of Mitragotri’s passion for adolescent health education…