Narcan kits offered at May 5 session in Pennsburg

        There is a special photo sitting on a bookcase next to Rev. Deborah Clemens' desk. 

        In it, she is proudly holding the arm of her 29-year-old son, Nate.  The pair is dressed to the nines, walking down the aisle at a wedding with big smiles on their faces.  The scene looks like pure joy. 

        But that joy soon melted into heartbreak.  A month later, Nate Clemens was found dead in his car from a heroin overdose.

        Like many of the tragic tales of those who overdosed before him, Nate Clemens wasn't always an addict.  He is described as a master drummer, who was quick-witted and loved to make people laugh.  At Souderton High School, he played football and was a part of an environmental club, SAVE (Students Against Violating the Earth).

        He likely experimented with a lot of things, his mother said, but he wasn't an addict until he tore his Achilles tendon in an accident.  He was prescribed painkillers, and after those prescriptions dried up, he turned to heroin. 

        The family tried desperately to get him into rehab but on that day, in 2008, time simply ran out.

        "In his struggle to get help, he felt threatened and scared.  All hell broke loose," Clemens said.  "We tried to force him into rehab according to what we were coached by the experts and he drove back to Colorado and he overdosed."

        It's a story Clemens has shared often since her son's death, but it's not one that has gotten any easier to tell.  But it has prompted her to take on substance abuse as her own cause; to help families who have no hope in sight.

        "We know how bad the epidemic is.  It's massive," she said.  "I know that because people come to me.  Also, people that we worked with years ago who looked like they were recovering beautifully, even mentoring other people, have relapsed.  The physical compulsion must be that intense.  It takes a village to pool their spiritual support to help these people.  Nobody can do it by willpower alone."

        In 2008 Clemens founded "Hope for Families," a program based at her church, New Goshenhoppen UCC in East Greenville, which educates people of all ages on the issue of drug addiction.  A related group, Wit's End, also meets at the church on Tuesday nights.  It's a non-structured, judgement-free zone where people can talk about their addiction struggles or dealing with a loved one who is addicted.

        "I just know there are no answers," Clemens said of opioid addiction.  "If there were a prescription for this we'd have it by now.  You just have to love them and help them survive."   

        Next month, Clemens hopes to introduce another piece to the puzzle.  Through Hope for Families, she has obtained kits of naloxone (Narcan), an opioid reversal drug which can help revive people who have overdosed.

        "Many families who are struggling with opiates have devastated all their funds because the sick person has taken what's available or because the cost of treatment is out of sight," she noted.  "Many of these families have nothing left and everything has been a plague, a cost on them." 

        The kits, which will be offered free of charge, were purchased using funds from the Nate Clemens Fund for Substance Recovery through Univest Bank.

         "We decided the appropriate use of some of this Nate fund is to buy Narcan and give it away free."

        The drug was made widely available last fall when Montgomery County Health Department Interim Director Dr. Valerie Arkoosh issued a standing order for it to be available without a prescription at participating pharmacies. 

        The drug kits will be offered to anyone who has concerns they might overdose or has an addict in their home.  Along with the kits, participants must be trained how to administer the drug during an anonymous, free one-hour session.  Training will be hosted by David Fialko, a certified prevention specialist employed by the Council of Southeast PA.  He also sits on the state's Rapid Response Overdose Task Force and the Upper Bucks Heroin Use Prevention Group.    

        "We know the need is there and we have the product to give.  We want this awful stigma to be overcome and people to know that nobody is judging them," Clemens said.  "There are no strings attached.  We want this to go out to anyone."

        Clemens said she hopes for a big turnout so people will have access to the lifesaving drug.

        "Family to family is where most of us need the help.  We hope there's some sight events where families meet each other and can support each other too," she said.

For more information on the Narcan program, to be held May 5 at 7 p.m. at the Upper Perkiomen Valley Ambulance Building, 2199 E. Buck Rd., Pennsburg, email Clemens@newgoshucc.org, or call (215)679-2041.