On Tuesday, a social worker and nurse professional demonstrated how to handle Narcan nasal spray, a possible life-saving medication during an opioid overdose, to a class of more than a dozen hair college kids on the city’s South Side.
It was a part of Rush University Medical Center’s action to fight the opioid crisis in traditionally underserved areas.
The next generation of salons and hair artists are truly poised to share information about substance use disorders with their customers as well as administer Narcan to change an opioid abuse in the event of an incident, said Keisha House, a nurse practitioner and associate director of Rush’s Substance Use Disorder Center of Excellence.
” You all are our eyes and ears, in the barbershop”, House told the audience at Larry’s Barber College in the Washington Park neighborhood, during a presentation on substance use disorders just before the Narcan demonstration.
She explained to the students that an opioid overdose in real life looks very different from what is frequently depicted on television and in movies. Symptoms can include unresponsiveness, constricted pupils, a limp body and breathing that slows or stops, according to the , Chicago Department of Public Health.
House added that people “have been using drugs since the beginning of time” and that there is no stereotypical or textbook person who struggles with use disorders. She noted that prescription and illicit drugs can be a part of substance use disorders.
Opioid overdose deaths have risen dramatically nationwide in recent years, from a little over 21, 000 in 2010 to nearly 50, 000 in 2019 to just over 81, 800 in 2022, according to , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , statistics.
In Illinois, opioid overdoses have increased more than 8 % from 2021 to 2022, in 2022, there were 3, 261 opioid fatalities — more than twice the number of car accident deaths and homicides, according to , Illinois Department of Public Health , data. Officials from the state health department attribute the rise in opioid overdose fatalities to the use of synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
If given immediately, naloxone, the generic name for the brand-name product Narcan, can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The nasal spray medication was approved for over-the-counter use by the , Food and Drug Administration , in 2023, it works on overdoses in street drugs, including fentanyl and heroin, as well as prescription versions, such as oxycodone.
Although House noted that all different ages, education levels, races, and backgrounds struggle with substance use disorders, opioid overdose deaths tend to disproportionally affect Black and brown neighborhoods.
In 2018, Chicago residents who died from an opioid-related overdose lived all across the city, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health’s 2018 , Opioid Overdose Surveillance report, but the neighborhoods with the most fatalities were Austin, Humboldt Park and North Lawndale, all areas with predominantly Black and Latino populations.
In 2018, there were opioid overdoses reported in all city neighborhoods, but most frequently in Austin, Humboldt Park, and West Garfield Park. According to the report, these three communities accounted for over 30 % of all overdose calls for emergency medical services.
House claimed that the issue is frequently compounded by a lack of health care facilities in Black and brown neighborhoods as well as a predominately mistrust of medical professionals in these areas as a result of past abuses.
” A lot of what African Americans know about health is from negative experiences”, she said. ” If we can educate our stylists, they can help change some of these false beliefs in the health care industry so that people can get help,” said one stylist.
House said she plans to give similar presentations at beauty salons as well as speaking at several barber colleges recently. The center at Rush is also collaborating with churches and other faith organizations to organize these kinds of demonstrations in public spaces.
Health officials around the country have turned to hair salons and barber shops to help combat public health epidemics in the past, from tackling , vaccine hesitancy , during the , COVID-19 pandemic , to promoting education about health problems such as , HIV,  , diabetes , and , high blood pressure.
In 2017, a , new Illinois law , required hair stylists, barbers, cosmetologists and certain other professions to receive domestic violence and sexual assault awareness training, enlisting them to help prevent these kind of abuses. Advocates cited the close relationship between many clients and their hair stylists or cosmetologists, which could provide one more avenue of support for assault or abuse survivors. However, the legislation does n’t require these workers to report violence.
” In the beauty shop, barber shop, it’s a safe have n”, House said. ” If we increase the knowledge, the training, the awareness … we’re able to promote positive health behaviors among their customers, where they feel safe”.
She addresses the stigma that frequently surrounds substance use disorders in her message.
” A lot of people who have developed use disorders and addictions, they’re looking for a way out of being in pain”, she said. ” Whether it’s pain from trauma, from emotions, from mental illness or pain in their bodies. Maybe they have chronic pain — arthritis or fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis, sickle cell disease. A lot of times people are trying to avoid pain, in the mind or in the body, and they turn to substances. Or they were utilizing a substance to aid and developed a tolerance and dependence, leading to an addiction.
Public health officials have been testing novel ways to make naloxone more accessible throughout the Chicago region.
South suburban officials made the announcement in May that free Narcan kits will be provided at the Pace Harvey bus terminal’s a , vending machine . As part of an” Opioid Overdose Prevention Project,” the Oak Park Department of Public Health added publicly accessible boxes with naloxone at various intersections in the village last year.
Narcan is also available for free in , all public libraries , in Chicago, and the Chicago Department of Public Health trains librarians on opioid overdose prevention and how to use naloxone.
The students received Narcan kits to bring with them after the presentation at Larry’s Barber College.
Some participants expressed reluctance or apprehension about the possibility of taking naloxone in an emergency.
But 30-year-old Laniah Davis said she felt ready to do so after watching the demonstration and presentation.
” Now that we know this information, we’re able to save a life or two”, she said. And we can share it with others to save lives.
She continued, adding that she has always been” the type of person to jump right in” whenever she wants to.
” If it was somebody in my family, I would want someone to help them”, she said. ” So I would see myself jumping into action whatever it takes, regardless of whether I know them or not.”
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