Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

St. Luke's Penn Foundation

Care & Share Thrift Shoppes Partners with St. Luke’s Penn Foundation for Narcan Training and Distribution

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Maggie Herrity, Care & Share Volunteer Manager and Ryan Schweiger, Community Outreach Specialist for St. Luke’s Penn Foundation, with one of the Overdose Emergency Kits. Photo provided by Care & Share Thrift Shoppes. 

Conference-Related Ministry (CRM) Care & Share Thrift Shoppes (Souderton, PA) is responding to community needs by taking steps to help prevent drug overdoses and reduce stigma for individuals living with substance use disorder.

Care & Share partnered with CRM St. Luke’s Penn Foundation and the Bucks County Drug and Alcohol Commission to install two Overdose Emergency Kits in its shoppes in April. 

Each kit is temperature-controlled and located in a publicly accessible space. They contain 4-6 doses of Narcan, CPR mask shields, and other resources.

“By installing these kits within our Shoppes, we are increasing access to a tool that can help prevent deaths by drug overdoses.” says Sarah Bergin, Executive Director of the Care & Share Thrift Shoppes.

Ryan Schweiger, Community Outreach Specialist for St. Luke’s Penn Foundation provided an educational training on Narcan to the Care & Share staff. “An overdose can happen to someone using drugs illicitly, and it can also happen to someone who is prescribed opioid pain medications for medical purposes,” Schweiger said. “Many factors play into the risk for overdose, and Care & Share is in a position in the community to care for the community.”

In March 2023, youth pastors from the Lansdale, PA Mosaic Youth Formation cluster also met at Penn Foundation to learn more about responding to community needs to prevent drug overdoses. 

Free Narcan Available to Congregations 

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by Ryan Schweiger 

In 2021, there were 107,622 drug overdose-related deaths in the United States. This translates to 294 lives lost to an overdose every day. Every one of these lives was worth saving. The people who lose their lives are our friends, neighbors, co-workers, children, spouses, parents, extended family members, and even church members.

A group of Mosaic pastors and youth leaders visited St. Luke’s Penn Foundation, a Conference Related Ministry, in March. I was honored to host them and talk more about the substance use prevention/recovery education that we provide annually to thousands of youths throughout Bucks and Montgomery counties. An important part of this visit was learning about Narcan (Naloxone), an opioid overdose reversal medication.    

In my work, I regularly see people struggling and families facing confusion, crushed hearts, and overdoses that sometimes result in death. I also get to see people and families who engage in treatment and find recovery—maybe for the first time or for the tenth time. It’s important for individuals and families to have that chance.  

Narcan is available to community organizations, free of charge, to have on hand. This life-saving medication comes in a small box with two doses (nasal spray devices). In the box, there are simple instructions for use as well as instructions on how to spot a possible overdose and to respond to the emergency with Narcan.

One of the benefits of Narcan, in addition to reversing overdoses, is that it isn’t harmful to anyone. For example, if the medicine is used on persons who do not have opioids in their bodies, nothing will happen; the medicine has no effect. It would be like spraying salt water into your nose. 

You may not know who takes a prescribed opioid, who struggles with addiction, or who experiments with substances that could be laced with powerful synthetic opioids. The individual may not even know. Overdoses can be accidental, which is why Narcan is so important and should be available everywhere, just like a first aid kit. 

If your congregation is interested in obtaining Narcan and/or receiving a brief instructional training on how to use it, please feel free to reach out to me at Ryan.Schweiger@sluhn.org. It would be my pleasure to help provide you with this important resource so that you are able to save a life. 

Ryan Schweiger

Ryan Schweiger CPS, CRS, CPRP is employed by St.Luke’s Penn Foundation as their Behavioral Health Community Outreach Liaison. In this role, Ryan serves as a bridge between St.Luke’s Penn Foundation and the community by providing resources and information, as well as education on behavioral health topics. Ryan is also a person in long-term recovery from a substance use disorder and shares his lived experience in that journey to instill hope, inspire change, and build community.