CANTON -- St. Lawrence County Community Services continues to provide free overdose prevention training online every Wednesday evening from 6-7 p.m.

Wednesday trainings can be accessed via Zoom Meeting # 634058466 or by calling 1-929-436-2866.

The county has temporarily suspended its monthly in-person community overdose response trainings due to COVID-19 but will arrange to drop off or mail kits to anyone in need of them for free.

First responders and community members in immediate need of a naloxone kit should email narcan@stlawco.org or call the clinic 315-386-2189.

There has been a nationwide increase in overdosed during the COVID-19 crisis.

Community Services is working to keep the overdose prevention kits available to the community.

The Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP) was recently implemented by the St. Lawrence County Public Health Department and its P4SUP coalition. ODMAP provides near real-time suspected overdose surveillance data across jurisdictions to support public safety and public health efforts to mobilize an immediate response to a sudden increase, or spike in overdose events.

Throughout the month of March, overdoses have continued to occur in our County, often requiring multiple doses of naloxone. Naloxone is a drug that reverses the effects of an overdose.

Since March 7 there have been nine reported overdoses in St. Lawrence County, two were fatal.

The use of ODMAP is not fully implemented by all first responder agencies, causing the actual number of overdoses to likely be higher than reported.

Social distancing in itself can be dangerous for an opioid and other drug users. When using alone, there may be no one present to administer the naloxone or to call 911 in the event of an overdose.

Additionally, substance users are more likely to increase daily use to cope or manage their stress during this challenging and uncertain time.