Florida Department of Health is rolling out an initiative to provide overdose prevention kits. The state agency is distributing naloxone kits to 16 county-level health departments as a starting point, including Glades and Hendry counties. Naloxone, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose within minutes. The next phase is to expand distribution to all 67 counties. There were 117 drug overdose deaths in Collier County during a 12 month period ending December of last year.
The new 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is reaching more Americans and connecting them to help faster than the old 10-digit suicide prevention line it replaced in July. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the number of calls answered went up more than 50% and texts answered went up by a whopping 1000% – from 3,400 in August of last year, to 39,900 in August of this year. The number of chats on the Lifeline's website that were answered saw a 195% increase.