RVC Rec Center hosts overdose-prevention talk

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What’s the difference between a heroin user who’s lost in a high and one who has overdosed and is dangerously close to death?

You can tell by the skin color and breathing, according to David Hymowitz, director of program development at the Nassau County Mental Health Association, a Hempstead-based nonprofit organization.

When users are overdosing, their skin and fingernails turn blue and their breathing becomes shallow. Users who are simply high breathe loudly and might snore or even drool.

It’s critical to know when someone’s overdosing on heroin or another opioid drug, such as Vicodin, because you need to understand when to administer naloxone, also known as Narcan, a drug that reverses heroin’s potentially fatal grip on the body.

Hymowitz spoke during a two-hour seminar hosted by the United Church of Rockville Centre at the Rockville Centre Recreation Center on Monday evening. Nearly everyone who attended the talk received a Narcan kit, complete with non-latex gloves, face shield, nasal syringe and two vials of naloxone, and was certified in use of the drug.

More than 120 local residents attended to hear the panel discussion, which also included County Executive Ed Mangano and his wife, Linda; the Rev. Scott Ressman of the United Church, and representatives of many drug-awareness and support groups. Members of several community organizations were on hand as well, offering drug counseling information and treatment options to attendees.

“I think it’s really important for faith communities to stand up and admit the problem,” Ressman said. “We have a lot of problems of our own that get swept under the rug sometimes because of pride, but I think it’s important for faith communities to make a statement to work to help alleviate these problems.”

Hymowitz, who has been a Narcan trainer for six years, said he has waited for the heroin epidemic to plateau, but it hasn’t. It only gets worse. “The alarming thing to me is that there’s still such a tremendous need,” he said. “Communities like Rockville Centre are very hard hit.”

In 2015 alone, there were nearly 160 heroin overdose deaths in Nassau and Suffolk counties, according to police records.

A 2006 state law allows people to dispense Narcan in an attempt to save the life of an overdose victim, without fear of liability. Hymowitz demonstrated how to dispense the drug, showing participants how to assemble the syringe through which it is administered nasally. He never actually dispensed the drug, however. Participants then practiced on their own, with assistance from Hymowtiz and other trainers.

Before Hymowitz ended the evening, he asked whether the seminar had helped. “Yes,” the participants shouted in unison.

The Mental Health Association’s next seminar, which will focus on the opioids fentanyl and carfentanyl, is set for April 13, at 7 p.m., at the Nassau County Legislative Chambers in Mineola.