A vending machine that dispenses Narcan has been installed at Berrien County’s South County Building in Niles.
The Berrien County Health Department teamed up with the Berrien County Trial Court to get the machine that is now available to the public to get free doses of the nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose. Berrien County Health Department prevention supervisor Lisa Peeples-Hurst tells us the department has been giving away Narcan for years.
“Here at the health department, we’ve been doing Narcan trainings, community-based trainings for at least the last five years or so,” Peeples-Hurst said. “But we felt that this was a great effort to team up with the Trial Court because this is life-saving medication.”
Peeples-Hurst says they’ve trained about 350 people in the use of Narcan.
The new vending machine at the South County Building is the second Narcan machine in the county. The other is at the Berrien County Jail in St. Joseph, right in the public lobby. Jail Administrator Celena Herbert tells us that’s a strategic location.
“We here decided to put it in that lobby out there because it’s on the inmate’s way out,” Herbert said. “That’s the biggest time that we seem to see overdoses is when people come to jail, they kind of get clean, they go out, and they want to do the same amount of drugs that they were doing before they came to jail, which is way too much for them. So, that’s when they actually need the Narcan.”
Herbert says since the machine was installed last August, it’s dispensed between 43 and 82 doses, all for free. It’s anonymous, so someone getting a Narcan dose isn’t gong to be stopped and questioned. Same goes for the machine in Niles.
Peeples-Hurst says the health department wanted to provide barrier-free access so the loved one of someone struggling or the user themselves could get the drug.
Starting June 19 through September, the Berrien County Health Department will offer Narcan training on the third Wednesday of each month from 9 to 10 a.m. and from 5 to 6 p.m. at its Benton Harbor office. Participants much be 18 or older. To register, call 269.927.5622.
