Woonsocket seeing spike in drug overdoeses
WOONSOCKET – A rise in overdoses in Woonsocket last week triggered two of the state’s health departments to issue a statewide alert this week.
The Department of Health and the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities & Hospitals issued a “Rhode Island Overdose Action Area Response’’ (ROAAR) Alert for Woonsocket on Wednesday. There was also an alert for South County within the last two weeks.
As part of the state’s Opioid Overdose Integrated Surveillance System, 10 ROAAR regions are monitored week-to-week for emergency department visits and emergency medical service visits related to non-fatal opioid overdoses. A threshold for each region is set weekly based on the previous 180 days of overdose data, according to DOH.
Wednesday’s ROAAR Alert for Woonsocket was issued because there were five reports of individuals receiving care for suspected opioid overdoses between January 29 and February 4; the threshold is four reports.
ROAARs are intended to “alert first responders, the public health community and other stakeholders” when there is an increase in opioid overdoses, according to a 2019 response from former Gov. Gina Raimondo to questions from the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The alerts also help the state target deployment of mitigation resources and services. Joseph Wendelken, a spokesperson for DOH, said mobile outreach teams contracted with the department go out to communities where alerts have been issued and provide “harm reduction tools and resources such
as naloxone, fentanyl test strips and connections to recovery services.”
John Tassoni, the president and CEO of the Substance Use and Mental Health Leadership Council of Rhode Island, told the Call the alert unlocks resources for the impacted community but that “the state needs to do more
work.”
“This is not getting any better,” he said. “The situation is getting worse. My providers that I represent are in tough shape.”
ROAAR regions and alerts launched in June of 2017, according to the state’s 2019 behavioral health assessment and plan. Including the alert this week, there have been four alerts for ROAAR Region 2, which just covers Woonsocket, since June
of 2021, according to state data.
The ROAAR alert comes just a week after the Woonsocket City Council announced a task force to help coordinate human service providers in the city to address homelessness and opioid addiction. Though the task force has not yet begun to meet, an initial workshop meeting on Monday, January 30 gave leaders from the city’s service providers a chance to
tell the council what they do to address the crises and what aid they still need.
Tassoni was one of the speakers at the January 30 meeting and told the Call this week he thinks the task force is a good idea.
“The Woonsocket City Council is doing a great job,” he said. “They’re one of the few that’s actually listening to the problem.”