US Senate News:
Source: The White House
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing that over 250 organizations, businesses, and stakeholders across the country have made voluntary commitments to the White House Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose.
The Challenge, launched earlier this year, is a nationwide call-to-action to stakeholders across all sectors to increase training on, and access to, life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone. The voluntary commitments highlighted today build on progress made under President Biden and Vice President Harris’s Unity Agenda, which calls on all Americans, in red states, blue states¸ and everywhere in between, to come together and help address the nation’s overdose epidemic.
Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic action and made unprecedented investments to reduce overdose deaths. The Administration removed decades-long barriers to treatment for substance use disorder and expanded access to life-saving overdose reversal medications like naloxone. The Administration also acted to make naloxone available over-the-counter at groceries and pharmacies for the first time in history. Today, the nation is now seeing the largest decrease in overdose deaths on record.
The White House received commitments to the Challenge from private and public entities, spanning entertainment and hospitality, professional sports leagues, health care providers, trade associations, schools and universities, technology companies, transportation partners, faith groups, private businesses, and more. A number of organizations and businesses made new voluntary commitments as part of the White House Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose, including:
Amazon is equipping its North American operations facilities with naloxone and bolstering its emergency response procedures with comprehensive training for employees on how to recognize signs of an opioid overdose and properly administer naloxone. Amazon is rolling out its naloxone program in two phases, starting with its most densely populated fulfillment centers. By early 2025, the program will expand to all of Amazon’s operations sites in the U.S., covering over 500,000 employees at hundreds of sites nationwide.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) commits to train its members and staff on proper use of opioid overdose reversal medications. They also commit to including opioid overdose medications in all first aid kits.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) is working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to implement naloxone on flights, including trainings. They previously worked with the FAA to require that Emergency Medical Kits (EMK) carried by passenger airlines include naloxone.
Atlanta Public Schools (APS) is implementing a district-wide training available to all school staff to recognize and reverse overdose. Currently, 136 APS health and security personnel have completed naloxone training. APS stocks naloxone in every elementary, middle, and high school in the district, serving nearly 50,000 students and 8,000 employees, and has opioid educational posters and brochures to increase school community awareness.
Butler University formed the Butler Overdose Action Team, comprised of faculty, staff, and student leaders, in response to the White House Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose. The team is leading campus-wide initiatives to increase awareness, training, and access to lifesaving opioid overdose reversal medication, and collaborating with local health organizations in Indianapolis to promote education on opioid use disorder on campus. Butler also recently placed naloxone in all 58 Emergency Kits across campus, and plans are underway for comprehensive naloxone training for students and employees.
Charleston County School District (CCSD) commits to working with their community and local substance use agencies to provide educational programs on and promote the use of opioid overdose reversal medications (OORM). CCSD’s substance use program commits to educate students, staff, and parents/caregivers about the dangers of illicit fentanyl and how OORM can save lives. In addition, CCSD works closely with district nursing staff on the use and availability of OORM in CCSD’s 83 schools that serve approximately 49,000 students.
The Dallas Area Rapid Transit Police Department commits to train and equip all of its Police Officers with naloxone. The Department supports a regional transit agency in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, covering six counties and thirteen cities.
Deloitte LLP will equip U.S.-based Deloitte Offices with naloxone by December 2024. Naloxone will be placed in Automated External Defibrillator (AED) cabinets at its offices across the U.S. Further, Deloitte will train select office personnel to recognize and help treat overdose.
Keystone Contractors Association (KCA) is recommending to its members that every construction jobsite and contractor’s office have naloxone available on-site. This builds upon KCA’s work in prior years in launching the Pennsylvania Construction Opioid Awareness Week to get resources and training to construction employers to provide to their workers.
Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) commits to reach its 500,000+ members, their families, and LIUNA affiliates with education on the importance of naloxone on jobsites, training on how to use the medication, and information on where and how to get it. This work is in addition to developing and promoting comprehensive safety and health information on opioid use.
The National Hockey League (NHL) commits to working with its clubs and staff to make life-saving medication readily available across NHL offices and in arenas. NHL is helping clubs make naloxone available at home games with their first aid units, and ensuring on-site personnel are trained to administer it on game nights. NHL is also advising clubs to include naloxone in their travel medical kits, and encouraging its availability in the visiting team’s emergency bags.
San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (SDMTS) now trains every newly hired Code Compliance Inspector (CCI) from the Transit Security and Passenger Safety Department in the recognition of opioid overdose and issues naloxone as required equipment for staff. In 2024, CCIs administered naloxone nearly 200 times, and the SDMTS Bus Division Road Supervisors also started carrying naloxone. SDMTS started training CCIs to carry and administer naloxone in July 2021 in response to the overdose crisis.
Commitments from these entities build upon steps taken in recent years by other organizations that joined the White House Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose to address the overdose epidemic. Examples of these actions from organizations include:
American Heart Association and Opioid Response Network are partnering on the EmPOWERED to End Opioid Misuse and Stimulant Use Disorder Initiative that aims to address opioid and stimulant usage within Black and Hispanic communities. They have partnered with Black and Hispanic churches to implement community trainings and disseminate educational tools to facilitate open and honest conversations with a wide range of people on the stigmatization of people experiencing opioid and substance use disorders.
International Union of Painters & Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 35 prioritizes support for and awareness of mental health and substance use, and provides overdose education and training on naloxone to its members and apprentices. IUPAT also distributes naloxone to its members, apprentices, and jobsites. IUPAT is part of a broader effort by the Massachusetts Building Trades Recovery Council, which has distributed more than 11,000 doses of naloxone to 14 building trades unions across Massachusetts for distribution to their membership. The Recovery Council receives naloxone from Massachusetts’ Bureau of Substance Abuse Services’ Community Naloxone Program.
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) in Florida has developed overdose rescue training for operations, safety, and security staff, and implemented a ‘bus marshal’ program, where naloxone-equipped security officers ride strategically-targeted routes. This led to saving the life of a bus passenger who was experiencing overdose. JTA also launched ‘Safety on the Move’, delivering free overdose prevention and rescue training and naloxone kits to at-risk communities in partnership with Drug Free Duval, Community Coalition Alliance, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation, and North Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Overdose Response Strategy.
The North Carolina Council of Churches (NCCC) hosts a Partners in Health and Wholeness initiative that works to bridge the issues of faith, health, and justice. This includes the Overdose Response program that offers opioid workshops to faith communities that seek to learn more about the opioid crisis and how they can help with response, and incorporates naloxone distribution upon request. They also received grant funding to provide local churches with resources for opioid-related initiatives for their members.
The Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) has more than 1,400 businesses in its membership, including restaurants, food and hospitality vendors, and allied businesses that work within the food industry in DC, Northern Virginia, and Suburban Maryland. RAMW began partnering with the DC Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) to provide overdose education and naloxone distribution to restaurants in DC, including large trainings for business improvement districts. Restaurants can order a kit to receive by mail from RAMW’s website.
The San Francisco Entertainment Commission is partnering with the San Francisco Department of Public Health to raise awareness about the presence of illicit fentanyl at and around nightlife spaces, and increase the entertainment industry’s access to life-saving naloxone. To date, they have led in-person trainings for staff at 18 nightlife businesses in San Francisco, distributed 300+ doses of naloxone at outreach events, and reached approximately 900 nightlife attendees through on-stage overdose prevention trainings before performances and other events.
This Must Be the Place is a nonprofit providing free naloxone to attendees at music venues and festivals across the country. They committed to passing out over 60,000 free kits of naloxone at places like Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, and Dreamville. Seventy percent of the population they reach are receiving naloxone for the first time.
United Airlines equips each of its enhanced medical kits on every aircraft and station across the network with opioid overdose reversal medications. All of United’s 28,000+ flight attendants are annually trained in the proper use of these life-saving medications. Over the past five years, United has purchased nearly 1,200 units annually, ensuring greater safety for both passengers and crew, including flight attendants and pilots.
The University of Rhode Island (URI), through its Cooperative Extension program, established the Community First Responder Program (CFRP). CFRP provides more than 50,000 kits annually. CFRP offers in-person and online educational trainings for the public at schools and town halls, and to healthcare providers, first responders, police, and more. They also distribute naloxone and safer-use kits at events in partnership with CVS Health and the U.S. Postal Service. CFRP has expanded services to rural regions of five other New England states through a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). CFRP is expanding its regional rural overdose education via collaborations with New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, Husson University School of Pharmacy (Maine), University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Western New England University College of Pharmacy (Massachusetts), and University of Vermont Cooperative Extension. As naloxone is often inaccessible to New England’s rural regions, CFRP offers to mail no-cost naloxone to participants completing its online interactive module, “Become a Community First Responder.”
Additional voluntary commitments can be found here.
In support of President Biden and Vice President Harris’ whole-of-government approach to address the overdose epidemic, federal agencies are working to help expand access to life-saving opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone and save even more lives. These efforts also align with updated Guidelines for Safety Station Programs in Federal Facilitiesreleased in December 2023:
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has authorized first responders in its Office of Safety, Security and Personnel and throughout the U.S. Forest Service who are equipped and trained in the administration of opioid overdose reversal medications (OORM). Additionally, USDA’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships has provided OORM trainings to over 40 community partners across 15 states as part of its Rural and Farming Communities Mental Health and Suicide Prevention work. USDA remains committed to continuing and expanding the reach of these trainings.
The Department of Commerce‘s Office of Export Enforcement (OEE) is training Special Agents in the use of opioid overdose reversal medications (OORM) in October 2024, allowing OEE Special Agents to safely and effectively deploy them. OEE will have OORM accessible during all preplanned enforcement operations by January 2025.
The Department of Defense (DoD) is committed to opioid safety and prevention of overdose. To strengthen DoD’s emergency response protocols, naloxone is available across installations in the Continental United States and training programs have been expanded, ensuring first responders are equipped and trained. The DoD remains committed to the safety and prevention of overdose by continuing its efforts to provide naloxone access to DoD first responders and investigators and to provide associated trainings beyond DoD first responders.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is increasing training on and access to naloxone. The Indian Health Service (IHS) now mandates annual overdose response training for all IHS employees, contractors, students, and volunteers. Further, before 2025, naloxone training and a guide on procuring naloxone (i.e., using state standing orders, city and county public health departments, etc.) will be available to all U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officers, and naloxone will be available in safety stations at all HHS regional offices. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), in partnership with the Program Support Center (PSC) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH), will equip all AED stations in its headquarters with naloxone, and SAMHSA hosted an annual naloxone training for all staff as part of its International Overdose Awareness Day recognition. Additionally, naloxone training will be added to the HHS Learning Management System available to all HHS personnel, including volunteer Federal Civilian Responders.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued, and recently updated, a policy regarding the Administration of Naloxone by Non-Healthcare Providers. This policy directs DHS agencies and offices to identify their workforce populations at higher risk of exposure and develop a program to equip them with both naloxone and the training to use it. The DHS Office of Health Security (OHS) developed virtual and in-person training modules that DHS agencies and offices can use to train their non-healthcare providers or as the basis for developing their own workforce-specific training. DHS continues to work to operationalize formal programs that equip non-healthcare providers with Component-procured naloxone.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) has issued guidance on the training, carrying, and use of naloxone by DOI employees who may come into contact with persons suspected of opioid overdose during their normal course of duties. The guidance allows critical first responders – including emergency medical responders and emergency medical technicians (EMR/EMT), firefighter EMTs, and law enforcement officers – to have access to opioid overdose reversal medications at various sites nationwide, including national parks and tribal lands. As DOI components continue to conduct risk assessments to identify high-risk areas and appropriate personnel to be trained, the Department is poised to implement vital resources efficiently to preserve life and protect the public.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has enacted policies so employees most likely to encounter overdose victims have access to opioid overdose reversal medications (OORM) and the training to safely and effectively deploy them. Pursuant to these policies, its law enforcement agencies – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and U.S. Marshals Service – will have OORM accessible during all preplanned enforcement operations; all Federal Bureau of Prisons staff at all sites will have access to OORM 24 hours a day; and all DOJ public-facing facilities and law enforcement facilities will have safety stations equipped with OORM.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has trained 59,000 employees in 1,318 facilities in U.S. counties facing high numbers of overdose deaths in response to the White House Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose. Also, USPS has procured and distributed naloxone to first aid kits in these facilities. As the USPS continues it communication activities on overdose prevention, it expects to reach over 500,000 employees, many of whom have public-facing roles as part of the Postal Service’s ubiquitous footprint across the United States.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is working to make training available to all employees by December 2024 and will develop and issue a policy statement to support naloxone implementation by March 2025. VA also pledges to ensure opioid overdose reversal medications are available in all high-risk Veterans Health Administration health care areas, including at VA Medical Centers and outpatient clinics, and in all Vet Centers by the end of 2025.
Read more on the White House Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose HERE.
Read more on the Biden-Harris Administration actions to address the overdose epidemic HERE.