Austin bar employees get training on opioid awareness

AUSTIN, Texas - The City of Austin recently provided training for bar employees on how to prevent and respond to an opioid-related crisis.

The training program, which began last year, focuses on overdose education and prevention for bar and venue owners in Austin and addresses things like identifying an overdose, supplying Narcan, calling 911 and rescue breathing.

Stevi Stevenson, operation and security lead for Emo's and Scoot Inn, was one of a dozen who attended the training held by the City's Development Services Department.

"We have a lot of incidents happen throughout concerts," Stevenson said. "It's spooky when those things happen, if you don't really know what to do in those circumstances."

Overdose awareness is deeply personal for Communities for Recovery program manager Phil Owen.

"I lost my son to a fentanyl overdose in 2017. And so I got embedded in this work. I had an opportunity for the position to get out and relate to the community from my experience, with that, in my experience also as an overdose survivor," said Owen.

Another initiative that the city has been working on is Sip Safely, which was launched as a six-month pilot program in April. It's designed to raise awareness about drink spiking. About 70 venues are participating by posting flyers and the City has handed out drink testing cards and drink covers.

MORE ON THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC

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Whether it's drink spiking prevention or overdose prevention, the hope is no one else has to go through the pain of losing someone to an overdose.

"We need to normalize having some of those conversations and being a considerate community and actually stopping and asking somebody if they're okay. It takes a couple seconds," Owen said.

"Being a musician myself as well is one of those things that like, it's a little bit dear to my heart. As much as it hurts, I don't really want to have to know this thing or these kinds of things, but knowing it makes me feel better about those friendships that I have with people that are going through hard times," Stevenson said.

The City says it expects to hold five more training sessions on overdose prevention with Austin bars. Training has also been held on de-escalation and active shooter response.