LOWELL, Mass. — There are many news reports about the victims of the opiate crisis here in New England, but we often don't hear about the impact on their loved ones specifically, children.
Now there's a new effort to help kids in one of the hardest hit areas.
The overdose reversing drug, Narcan, is saving lives, but it's not stopping the opiate crisis in New England.
On average, first responders in Middlesex County administer Narcan two or three different times each day.
"The opioid epidemic has just transcended every community,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said.
Ryan said the number of deadly overdoses is still rapidly rising, and nowhere is it worse in the county than in Lowell.
About one in every five of the county's deadly overdoses is occurring in that city.
"Despite the resources being devoted to this problem, we continue to see the numbers go in a different direction,” Ryan said.
Deadly overdoses increased in Lowell by 180 percent from 2014 to 2015.
The median age of victims is 35, often making them a parent of young children.
"We had an instance with two young girls, a 7- and 9-year-old child, they're at home in an evening, they're not able to wake their mother, they manage to put something together for dinner, the next morning they're still not able to rouse their mother, they call their grandfather, he comes over, their mother has experienced a fatal overdose.”
With so many children either witnessing an overdose or being in a home where drug use is regularly happening the DA's office, working with Lowell police and mental health experts, is launching a first of its kind pilot program called Project Care.
The 24-hour, 7-day-a-week response has a goal of helping affected children stay on normal developmental paths and keeping them from becoming future addicts.
"What we know is that every single child deserves to have the fullest and richest possible life,” Ryan said.
Data will be collected and tracked from project care.
The Middlesex County DA hopes it is so successful it becomes a model for the state and potentially the country.