The Bloomberg Overdose Prevention Initiative is working with states to combat the overdose epidemic by promoting evidence-based policies and supporting implementation of best practices that can be modeled around the country. To make progress and save lives, the initiative focuses on three pillars to reverse the upward trend of overdose deaths:
The seven states where we are doing our work have seen particularly high rates of overdose; Bloomberg Philanthropies has launched deep partnerships with them to create programs and implement policies. This work includes:
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Faith in Harm Reduction is a national collective of faith and community leaders who mobilize spirit, community, and power in partnership with people who use drugs. Our goal is to advance liberation, health, and wholeness for communities impacted by overdose, trauma, stigma of substance use, and racialized drug policy.
Good Samaritan Law: Good Samaritan Laws provide immunity to someone who calls 911 when someone they are with experiences an overdose or alcohol poisoning, protecting them from prosecution should they be in possession of drug paraphernalia. Clearly written and executed Good Samaritan Laws save lives by making people feel safe calling for help in the event of an overdose.
Cocaine was involved in nearly 1 in 5 drug-related deaths during 2017. While cocaine-involved overdose death rates in the United States decreased from 2006-2012, they began increasing again in 2012. In 2017, drug-related deaths involving cocaine increased by more than 34 percent, with almost 14,000 Americans dying from an overdose involving cocaine. (CDC.gov) A similar pattern has been seen in overdose deaths attributed to psychostimulants like methamphetamine, ecstasy, etc.
Family, friends, faith communities, etc. can help reduce the risk of an overdose in a loved one by educating themselves, carrying naloxone, speaking non-judgmentally about drug use and overdose risk, and checking in with loved ones about safety plans.
Congregations benefit from having an established plan for responding in the instance of an overdose occurring onsite. Leadership, staff, volunteers, and congregants should be familiar with the plan, and adaptations should be made for the potentiality of an off-site response, for example at an outreach event.
Knowing an overdose has occurred can be traumatic for bystanders, and they should be reassured and provided clear direction about what to do to create a safe space for the person who overdosed and to ensure that staff and any emergency personnel can do their jobs without interference. This should include clearing the space, making sure hallways are open and having access to telephones to make calls.
I spent last night like many other nights over the last number of years, sitting with a loved one who had experienced an overdose, sitting with other loved ones who had loved this person back to life after they went out.
So I will wear this stole. I made this stole. I have worn this stole to marry people I love, to bury people I love, I wore this stole for the memorial service I presided over for the over 1700 New Yorkers who died from an accidental overdose or drug poisoning in one year alone. And I am surely going to wear it to give voice to the people I love in the spaces I have access to, and I am not going to wait until I am called to do one more funeral to insist that we are treated with the dignity and divinity that is our birthright.
Cheryll Moore began her career at the Erie County Department of Health as a Public Health Educator. Cheryll's current title is Medical Care Administrator and she is the director of the Erie County Department of Health Opioid Program. In this role, Cheryll has played an integral part in Erie County's response to the opioid crisis. She has been instrumental in obtaining over 3 million dollars to combat the opioid epidemic and in training over 10,000 first responders and the public to recognize signs of an opioid overdose and to use intranasal naloxone to prevent fatal opioid overdoses. Over the past few years, Erie County has experienced a decrease in opioid fatalities. In addition to opioid prevention activities, Cheryll operates the County's Expanded Syringe Access (ESAP) and Needle Disposal Programs. Community kiosk for medication and needle disposal are located in many accessible sites in Western New York, collecting several tons of medical waste yearly. Cheryll facilitates professional training for ESAP around the state and is a nationally requested speaker on the topic.
During her first term in office, Rep. Sherrill helped form the Freshmen Working Group on Addiction, a bipartisan effort to promote policies to end the addiction crisis. She was instrumental in securing critical funding for State Opioid Response Grants and Tribal Opioid Response Grants to help states to reduce overdose related deaths through prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts. Alongside Rep. Andy Kim (NJ-03), Sherrill reintroduced the Solutions Not Stigmas Act last month, which bolsters substance use disorder prevention and treatment programs in New Jersey and nationwide.
Dr. Volkow's work has been instrumental in demonstrating that drug addiction is a brain disorder. As a research psychiatrist, Dr. Volkow pioneered the use of brain imaging to investigate how substance use affects brain functions. In particular, her studies have documented how changes in the dopamine system affect the functions of brain regions involved with reward and self-control in addiction. She has also made important contributions to the neurobiology of obesity, ADHD, and aging.
"The data, at least in the pig model, are highly suggestive that this will sustain life. I think the most immediate clinical application, and the first clinical test we are going to do, is in people who have had multiple overdoses. We would approach them in the intensive care unit and tell them they are at very high risk for future overdoses and give them the option to be implanted with the device," Naqvi said.
Naloxone has been instrumental in helping address the opioid crisis due to its ability to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Opioids include heroin and prescription pain pills like OxyContin, Percocet, methadone, and Vicodin.
Naloxone medication only affects people using opioids. If a person is not having an overdose but has been using opioids, naloxone will put them into immediate withdrawal, which can be very uncomfortable for the person but not life-threatening.
Non-Hispanic Black individuals in four U.S. states experienced a 38% increase in the rate of opioid overdose deaths from 2018 to 2019, while the rates for other race and ethnicity groups held steady or decreased, according to a new study by the National Institutes of Health published in the American Journal of Public Health. These alarming data are in line with other research documenting a widening of disparities in overdose deaths in Black communities in recent years, largely driven by heroin and illicit fentanyl. The research emphasizes the need for equitable, data-driven, community-based interventions that address these disparities.
For this study, data were collected from death certificates for 2018 and 2019 across 67 communities with a total population of more than 8.3 million people in the four states participating in the HEALing Communities Study. The researchers calculated rates and trends of opioid overdose deaths overall and for each state, and then further analyzed trends by race and ethnicity (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, other). Overall, the investigators observed no change in the opioid overdose death rate in these states from 2018 (38.3 deaths per 100,000 people) to 2019 (39.5 deaths per 100,000 people).
To address this challenge, the HEALing Communities Study is working with local, state, and federal partners to gain access to data on opioid-related overdose fatalities, treatment, and other related health concerns in a timelier fashion and include important demographic information including race and ethnicity. Early access to these data was instrumental in informing HEALing Communities Study intervention planning, including discussions ensuring evidence-based practices are equitably available to all racial and ethnic groups. For example, these data informed partnerships with Black community organizations to improve access to overdose education and naloxone distribution.
You may have occasionally read newspaper reports of heroin addicts who have died as a result of heroin overdose. Some of these deaths may be the result of mixing heroin with other drugs, or a change in the addict's normal source of supply. But some deaths remain a mystery because addicts have died from doses that they tolerated the day before. They appear to have suffered from a sudden loss of tolerance .
While a third person is now in custody, law enforcement officials are still looking for the husband of one of the arrested co-conspirators, who was seen on surveillance running from the day care center after the overdoses with plastic bags that authorities believe contain fentanyl.
The continued increase in fentanyl overdoses is a mounting concern. The Drug Enforcement Administration has warned of a growing number of cases of fentanyl being mixed with other street drugs or being pressed into counterfeit pills and taken by unsuspecting consumers.
The most significant driver, though, is the growing availability of naloxone or Narcan, a lifesaving opioid overdose reversal drug. A recent study by the National Institutes of Health showed that communities that have easy access to naloxone can reduce opioid deaths by over 27%. In several states, naloxone can be distributed without a doctor's prescription and because of state and federal government investments, it is increasingly on hand for emergency first responders.
We know that 90 per cent of people who are dying are dying indoors. Most of those people are consuming alone. That may be associated with the stigma associated with drug use. They don't want to admit to their family, to their friends, that they have a problem. They may not want to come to an overdose prevention site where they can consume their drugs under observation. ff782bc1db