Seth Klamann/ seth.klamann@gazette.com
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…More funding, from Caring for Denver and Colorado Access, will allow the hospital to set up an “intensive outpatient substance treatment” for adolescents, Thurstone said; the need for that service became apparent because of the number of young people overdosing recently. Denver Health will also start offering withdrawal management for people 21 years of age and younger.
That’s really important because the current standards of care in most situations is if a young person presents with a fentanyl overdose and then gets revived with the use of Naloxone in the emergency department, they’ve most frequently get discharged from emergency department,” Thurstone said. Naloxone is a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses.
“This’ll help these teenagers be admitted to a medically monitored withdrawal and be connected to care and have a seamless transition,” he continued. “We have over a thousand youth per year who present to emergency department for primary substance intoxication and withdrawal.”