558: A Call to Expand Naloxone Availability, Policies to Solve Maternity Care Deserts

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, December 6, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

STEVEN STACK: 

Some models predict that equipping more people who are likely to witness an overdose with naloxone would reduce overdose deaths by as much as 21%. That's one in five people currently dying from this horrible disease. That's over 20,000 people a year in the United States.

JOHNSON: 

ASTHO President Dr. Steven Stack speaking to reporters recently about the need to make naloxone more widely available as overdose deaths in the U.S. worsen. Former Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams joined the event and agrees that everyone should carry the nasal spray just in case.

JEROME ADAMS: 

I believe that everywhere there's an AED, an automated external defibrillator, there should also be an naloxone because the truth is in many of our communities, you're far more likely to encounter someone who is having an opioid overdose than you are to encounter someone who's having a heart attack.

JOHNSON: 

Stack is Kentucky's health commissioner. He says there's an effort in his state to make access as easy as possible.

STACK: 

We have even positioned things that look like what you might be used to seeing newspaper, dispensing boxes in communities full of Narcan, so that people can come and take it when they need to.

JOHNSON: 

ASTHO Chief Medical Officer Dr. Marcus Plescia moderated the call. He reminds ASTHO members that legislation helps encourage people to act when lives are on the line.

MARCUS PLESCIA: 

One of the things that the states has done that is very, very important in making naloxone more available is making sure that they have Good Samaritan laws in place, so that people can administer this medication with immunity, without having there's not a lot of risk to giving somebody Narcan but nonetheless, we don't want people to have any kind of concerns or insecurity when they do something that's intended to be in somebody else's best interest and that's where the Good Samaritan laws come in.

JOHNSON: 

You can see how states and territories are responding to the overdose crisis by visiting the ASTHO's Public Health Legal Mapping Center. We have the link in the show notes.

More and more areas around the country don't have adequate maternity care for pregnant people in their communities. These areas are called maternity care deserts. Honour McDaniel with March of Dimes in Alabama says expanding Medicaid telehealth coverage can help.

HONOUR MCDANIEL: 

There's many states that may have expanded telehealth in general but they aren't covering maternity care, as well as the intentionality of teaching people how to use that system.

JOHNSON: 

McDaniel adds that's not the only approach available to areas where care is limited or non-existent.

MCDANIEL: 

This can include things like expanding Medicaid, right, extending postpartum if you haven't already to 12 months, improving integration of mid-wifery, the mid-wifery model of care into the system, as well as reimbursement for doula care.

JOHNSON: 

March of Dimes released its report on maternity care deserts in 2022. You can download a copy using the link in the show notes.

On a different topic, ASTHO is hiring. It has openings for a contracts manager and a temporary accounting analyst. We've got links to these jobs in the show notes.

Finally, this morning, stay connected to everything happening in public health when you sign up for ASTHO's Public Health Weekly email newsletter. It provides a convenient round-up of the latest ASTHO content, and even gives you links to the newest episodes of the newscast. You can join the list by clicking the link in the show notes.

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We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.