Opioid task force makes progress
S.A. has highest rate in the state of babies born addicted
before a room full of officers at the San Antonio Police Training Academy, Charles Thibodeaux held up a small, white nasal spray dispenser. Administering that form of Naloxone — the drug that rapidly reverses the effects of an opioid overdose — is not difficult, he explained. Place a thumb on the bottom of the spray piece. Position it in the nostril of the person in distress. Pump out the dose. Life saved. “Who needs to have this? Really, everybody,” Thibodeaux said. “It’s the simplest to use.” Thibodeaux, with the Texas Overdose Naloxone Initiative, led the training session Tuesday for law enforcement officers, one of the strategies to grow out of the local opioid overdose prevention task force. The toll from opioid overdoses in Bexar County, while not at the crisis levels reached in other parts of the country, caused 108 deaths in 2015, which computes to the third-highest rate in Texas. San Antonio has the highest rate in the state of babies born addicted to drugs. To reduce those numbers, Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff organized the task force in 2017, bringing together representatives from the city, county, health care providers, social service organizations and law enforcement agencies. Since then, substantive steps have been taken to combat opioid abuse, according to a briefing for the City Council on Wednesday. The task force has secured a collective $11 million in grants, some for the Naloxone training. More than 32,000 doses of the nasal spray have been distributed to first responders, law enforcement agencies and the public, according to the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing. Three additional drop boxes for the safe disposal of leftover prescription drugs have been installed at police substations. There is a centralized map of treatment providers. Health care providers hosted a symposium on substance abuse. An educational campaign was launched to help parents and youth better understand the dangers of prescription drug abuse. Steps have been taken toward establishing a needle exchange program, and within the next few months, Crosspoint plans to open a recovery house newly tailored for pregStanding nant and postpartum women who have undergone treatment. “If you had asked me a year ago did I think we would have accomplished all of these things, I would have said no way,” said Colleen Bridger, director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District and cochair of the task force. Lisa Cleveland, an assistant professor at the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing who has helped manage the Naloxone training, said having all SAPD officers comfortable administering the drug is a major step for the city. “They may actually be the first ones to arrive on the scene, and every minute counts when somebody’s not breathing,” she said. “They can do something right there to save a life.” Now that the proscribed year for examining opioid deaths in San Antonio has passed, Bridger said the task force’s recommendation was for the city and county to next tackle substance abuse and mental health resources more broadly. The county is still waiting to hear back on a federal grant that would fund an employee to work on the issue full time, said T.J. Mayes, Wolff’s chief of staff. Wolff said the most significant outgrowth of the task force has been uniting area health care providers to start addressing the problem in a concerted way. “It was a wake-up call. When you shine the light on something, people have a way of responding to that light,” Wolff said.
“Who needs to have this? Really, everybody.” Charles Thibodeaux of the Texas Overdose Naloxone Initiative