The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is launching a new effort this summer called Project Gabe to provide opioid misuse awareness, education and prevention resources to industrial workers. The project uses the existing DHSS program, Project HOPE, to distribute naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, and fentanyl test strips, which can test for the presence of fentanyl in drugs, to working Alaskans.
The program is first being implemented first within fisheries in Southeast Alaska, by Public Health Nursing in partnership with the Office of Substance Misuse and Addiction Prevention and members of the seafood industry. Over time, the project will be expanded to include other industries and geographic regions of the state.
Project Gabe will be providing education and naloxone free of charge through four main ways:
- By installing opioid emergency boxes in common rooms within processing facilities, bunkhouses and offices
- By distributing water-resistant bags containing naloxone on fishing fleet vessels
- By providing opioid overdose kits to individuals to keep on hand in any location
- By partnering with industry to provide education to Alaska workers about the risks of opioids and substance misuse
Project Gabe is named in honor of Gabe Johnston, who died of an overdose in January of this year and was the son of Sitka Public Health Nurse Denise Ewing.
