Revere tries new approach to help addicts after overdoses

REVERE, Mass. — An unusual approach to combating the opioid epidemic is literally putting help on people's doorsteps.

Police officers, firefighters, and community healthcare workers are going door-to-door helping addicts with their recovery after an overdose.

It’s the newest weapon in the arsenal fighting the opioid epidemic in one of Massachusetts’ most affected communities. Data showed the best way to help someone battling addiction was not by handing them a pamphlet in the emergency room, but by reconnecting people who became isolated from their families and communities through drug use, and this program aims to do that.

"I wanted to get out of the hospital as quickly as possible. I still had like 8 grams in the couch or the ceiling or somewhere. And I had just almost died, like I was on the floor dead, blue,” one man said, reflecting on his last overdose before getting help.

That man was revived, brought into an ambulance and taken to a hospital, but could only think about getting back home to use again. He said that his daily life had turned into something he didn’t recognize at the height of his addiction.

"It’s 6 a.m., I'm sick already, so at that point ma's pocketbook is looking pretty good. It all ended real quick, you know what I mean?"

He was lucky. It ended with a friend’s overdose at his apartment, bringing the substance abuse disorder team to his door. The group had just been formed after deaths from opioid overdose climbed at an alarming rate.

“It’s like fighting an incoming tide, the drugs get stronger, it gets harder to reverse someone form an overdose, there are more complications from synthetic drugs now,” said Community Health Coordinator Gary Langis.

The city of Revere’s new approach teams up first responders who save lives on the street with outreach groups that have been handing out Narcan illegally for years.

“It was odd when I started working across from the chief of police in Revere,” Langis said.

Something needed to change, and Mayor Brian Arrigo took that initiative to heart.

"There’s no better work that we can do on state local or federal level than saving lives,” Mayor Arrigo said.

After an overdose the team pools the police and fire databases of names, addresses, and history of calls with the substance abuse workers who bring the resources on board.

"We'll leave them Naloxone right there on site that night if they request it,” Langis said.

It appears it is working. Between July, 2016 and March of this year 1,500 people were serviced by the team, and have saved hundreds of lives with Narcan overdose reversals.

The SUDI team does outreach calls every Tuesday. They also have a drop-in office at 437 Revere Street where people in need of Narcan or rehabilitation services can go for help.

Cox Media Group