Drug Overdose Prevention Program

In an effort to curb local effects of opiate overdose deaths in our area, Roberts Park Fire Protection District is working with the Illinois Department of Public Health to train non-medical first responders, bystanders and the families and friends of those that are prescribed and/or use opiate medication to recognize and manage an opiate overdose. 

Overdose death rates have exploded across the country during the past several years, with a boom in heroin and prescription drug use widely credited as the drivers of this lethal trend. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health an estimated 1,946 people in Illinois died of an opioid overdose in 2016, an 82% increase compared to 2013. Much of the alarming increase in opioid overdose deaths in recent years can be attributed to the rise of dangerous synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. Synthetic opioids are fast acting and can be hundreds to thousands of times more potent than heroin. Heroin and other street drugs are often mixed with fentanyl to increase their effects, which can quickly become a lethal combination. Between 2013 and 2016, overdose deaths in Illinois attributable to synthetic opioids increased tenfold (IDPH). In 2015, approximately 81,326 people in the United States had an emergency department visit for unintentional, heroin-related poisonings, which is an estimated rate of almost 26 per 100,000 people in America (CDC).

According to Illinois 2014, Public Health data, Illinois has one of the higher rates of death from heroine and opioid use. Illinois is one of 16 states in which more people die of drug overdoses than car accidents. Heroin is the most commonly cited drug among drug treatment admissions in Illinois. The highest rate of Emergency Department admissions is said to be due to use of heroin, fentanyl and prescription opioids.

Click here for more information on IDPH's DOPP.

Email: PublicEducation@rpfpd.org to schedule a DOPP training.

We require a minimum of 5 participants to schedule a training and all those that complete the training will receive a free dose of nasal naloxone to take with them.