According to DHEC, South Carolina firefighters are reaching a milestone of 200 naloxone administrations for suspected opioid overdoses this year as of October 21st.
The Reducing Opioid Loss of Life (ROLL) program trains any fire department to administer the opioid antidote naloxone, including departments not staffed with emergency medical technicians. It's administered by DHEC's Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and currently includes over1,700 firefighters in 113 units across the state.
South Carolina started the program in 2017 to address the increasing number of opioid overdoses and deaths.
“The expansion of ROLL this year couldn’t have come at a more important time, allowing more first responder fire departments to respond to significant increases in suspected overdoses since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Arnold Alier, director of DHEC’s Emergency Medical Services.