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While eating lunch at my desk last week, I browsed CNN to learn what was going on in the world. Amongst the Trump headlines I spotted something that sparked my interest. The title of the article?
The opioid epidemic is so bad
that librarians are learning how
to treat overdoses
The McPherson Square Library in Philadelphia, PA, where 33 year old librarian Chera Kowalski works, has become the site of numerous heroin overdoses. It's become so bad that she keeps a blue zipper pouch containing Narcan, the heroin antidote, tucked away in her desk for emergencies. A photograph with the article showed signs taped to the facility's restroom - "due to unacceptable behavior, restroom use is limited to three to five minutes." Another read, "you must leave ID or your library card at the front desk in order to use the restroom...we are trying to prevent drug use in our bathroom in order to protect our children."
I cringed upon seeing another photograph with the article that showed a young man who works at the library outside of the building picking up discarded used needles. The man details how many needles he finds each day on a calendar. The month of May set a record, the article continued - 1,197 needles.
Kowalski has saved six people since April of this year. "That's a lot for a librarian," library guard Sterling Davis commented.
And although Kowalski has a connection to heroin (her parents used, but have been clean for 20 years), I wondered why she felt it was her continuous responsibility to help overdosers.
Is it our individual responsibility to help strangers when we see an overdose happening before our eyes? Should we all be carrying around our own blue zipper pouch with Narcan?
Maybe I'll never feel comfortable jumping to an overdoser's aid, or administering an antidote not knowing if the person will learn from the experience or not. At this time, I still think that is the responsibility of emergency personnel.
Changing a mind set is hard - it takes time. I'm still working on changing mine.