Whitley EMS gets 85 doses of Narcan thanks to grant funding

Whitley County EMS received 85 free doses of Narcan Friday afternoon at the Whitley County Health Department. From left, Kayla Smith Henderson, Corbin Independent Schools; Martha Steele and Tamara Phelps, Whitley County Health Department; and Anthony Gibson, Lt. Niki Reynolds and Steven Dykes, all with Whitley County EMS.

Whitley County EMS received 85 free doses of Narcan Friday afternoon courtesy of the Whitley County Health Department and the Corbin Independent Schools District.

The drug is used to reverse the effects of overdose when a victim quits breathing.

“It is really expensive. Hopefully this will save them a little bit of money,” Whitley County Health DepartmentPublic Health Director Martha Steele said about the ambulance service.

The grant that funded the donation is through the Bell Knox Whitley Board of the Kentucky Agency for Substance Abuse Policy.

The Corbin school district, which has two employees that serve on the local board, is serving as the fiscal agent for the grant.

Since Bell County didn’t have its syringe exchange ready to start by the grant deadline, Knox and Whitley County applied for and split the $20,000 grant.

Whitley County is using its $10,000 share of the grant for educational purposes, rapid Hepatitis C testing kits, and Narcan for the ambulance service.

Kayla Smith-Henderson, a grant writer for the Corbin Independent Schools District, who wrote the grant for this project, said she would love for school resource officers and family resource center coordinators to have access to Narcan for when they do home visits.

“They may walk in on something where a parent has overdosed or something like that,” she noted.

The health department paid $5,350.75 for the 85 doses of Narcan that it donated to Whitley County EMS.