Public Safety Hosts Opioid Conference

Nearly 100 law enforcement officers, Village Public Safety Officers (VPSOs), first responders, and health care workers from around Alaska participated in Tlingit & Haida’s first-ever Opioid conference.

The Public Safety Division’s Addiction & Recovery program hosted two three-day conferences in Anchorage, Alaska in January.

The goal of the conference was to provide training on drugs and substance abuse and how that can impact our rural communities in Southeast Alaska.

“As we’re continuing to learn, drugs are expanding and coming in different forms and traveling into our communities. Safety is the number one thing we want to teach our VPSOs and first responders,” shared Katie Crossely, who coordinated the conference. “We want to be on top of drug trends so our responders can be welleducated and keep themselves safe as well as the community.”

Participants learned about different narcotics and how the drugs impact people’s bodies. Staff from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium talked about the importance of Naloxone, known by the brand names Narcan and Kloxxado, which is used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Each class participant took home several Naloxone kits they can use as a life-saving measure if someone has taken too many opioids.

Fredrick Katelnikov, a trainer for First Responder Personal Protection in Kodiak, taught de-escalation tactics on how first responders and healthcare workers can recognize and handle potentially dangerous situations.

Hydaburg Village Public Safety Officer Michael Betts said the de-escalation training will be useful in his small village where he is often the first, and potentially only, responder on the scene of an emergency.

“I deal with a lot of high-escalated situations, so this de-escalation training is crucial. I definitely got information from this training that I’m going to apply every day,” VPSO Betts said.

At a welcoming banquet, Tlingit & Haida President Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson thanked the first responders for attending the conference so they could learn more to help their communities.

“I’m really proud of the work we can do to be that systemic train, to turn the tide so we can have the pride and love in our communities, for each other, that I grew up with. I know it’s still there but it’s hidden by this opioid crisis, drugs and alcohol. We just have to take it head on and that’s what we’re here to do,” President Peterson said.