Forsyth County earns award for pairing Narcan with AEDs statewide
Forsyth County put Narcan beside 76 AEDs in government buildings, and 760 employees were trained to use it.
Forsyth County placed Narcan nasal spray alongside 76 automated external defibrillators in county offices and other public-serving facilities. The rollout was funded with opioid settlement money and is meant to make Narcan easier to reach in high-traffic buildings where residents already come for services.
The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners formally recognized the Risk Management office at its July 9 meeting after the Georgia Public Risk Management Association presented the office with its Entity Achievement Award in April. The award recognized the program's pairing of overdose response with cardiac emergency equipment.
Training was part of the rollout. In 2025, 760 county employees completed Narcan compliance training. The county’s Risk Management division oversees safety and loss prevention for county operations and provides scheduled and as-needed safety training for employees under Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation requirements.
The Narcan-AED placement follows the county’s earlier decision to use opioid settlement money for harm reduction and related services. In May 2023, commissioners approved about $1.3 million in the first round of spending from nearly $20 million over 18 years. Denise Price, the county’s behavioral health services director, said the county was seeking community stakeholder input and wanted to make steady progress over the long term.
Narcan was already available for free without a prescription at the Forsyth County Pharmacy and in the lobby of the Forsyth County Detention Center. The Georgia Opioid Crisis Abatement Trust, created in 2022, manages Georgia’s share of national opioid settlements for prevention, treatment, harm reduction, recovery, research, training and education.
The AED side of the effort also builds on Forsyth County’s 4 Minute City program, which launched in 2023 with 30 trained responders receiving mobile AEDs and a larger plan to eventually place 300 Avive Connect AEDs in the community. Forsyth County was among the first communities in the country selected for that effort. The county population is just over 280,000.
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