The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Fewer victims reporting nonfatal overdoses
Recent anecdotal evidence suggests that more people are suffering nonfatal opioid overdoses in the area but are not calling 911 for help, according to members of the Litchfield County Opiate Task Force.
It’s a new problem the task force and others are trying to address by alerting people about the dangers of not seeking immediate medical help even if they have been revived with Nalaxone, known by the brand name Narcan, which reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.
“We’ve done a good job blanketing the community with Narcan,” said Maria Coutant Skinner, executive director of the Torringtonbased McCall Center for Behavioral Health, one of the lead organizations involved in the task force.
“But what we are hearing from people who work with outreach is that people are administering Narcan, but not calling 911. That’s not part of training we provide when Narcan is issued.”
The dangers of not reporting an opioid overdose are twofold, she said. Those who are administered Narcan and are revived, should still seek immediate medical help since the overdose can return once the Nalaxone wears off, she said.
“Narcan is shortacting,” Coutant Skinner said. “You need to get in front of a medical professional in case you need another dose and to find out if there is any other medical issues that need attention.”
The other issue centers around data, she said. If
nonfatal overdoses are not reported, state officials do not have an accurate sense of how big the problem of opioid addiction is or if a public health emergency is occurring, she said.
“The numbers that we have from the state Department of Health aren’t telling the whole story,” she said. “If we see a spike in overdoses, we can get the word out that a batch is particularly potent, but we can’t do that, if we don’t know.”
The task force is comprised of dozens of health care providers, including Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, nonprofit agencies, treatment centers and town agencies like social services, police and EMS in Litchfield County. The task force meets monthly to discuss issues surrounding the opioid epidemic to determine what can help save lives and get people into treatment.
The group organized in 2013 as accidental opioid overdose deaths were on the rise. At the time, about 4 percent of fatal overdoses involved fentanyl, a drug 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin, Coutant Skinner said.
“Now we’re in the 75 percent to 80 percent range,” she said.
The group has fostered collaboration between agencies throughout Litchfield County that share ideas and programming on how to deal with opioid addiction, she said.
As a result of their work, there are recovery coaches at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital to encourage those who show up at the Emergency Department seeking treatment after an overdose. The coaches are peers who have been through opioid addiction and now want to help others get sober.
The task force has also found funding to pay outreach workers who provide harm reduction supplies such as Narcan and wound care kits and information on treatment at community events such as the daily soup kitchen at Trinity Church in Torrington.
A few times a week, Lauren Pristo, the fulltime network coordinator for the task force, shows up at the soup kitchen to mingle with clients and outreach volunteers.
Most clients Pristo has spoken with have either witnessed an overdose, used Narcan to revive someone or received Narcan themselves, Pristo said.
“Most of them have had someone close to them die of an overdose,” Pristo said. “They have used Narcan on a parent, their best friend or a significant other.”
She called the opioid epidemic that has gripped the nation, including Connecticut where 1,017 died in 2018, “wild and changing by the minute.”
Pristo and some of her volunteers have received reports about people not reporting their overdoses because they fear getting arrested, she said.
“It’s a big risk for people who know the Good Samaritan Law in the state but fear that it won’t protect them,” Pristo said. “They won’t call 911.”
The state legislature passed the Good Samaritan Law regarding opioids in 2011 as a response to concerns that people were getting arrested for drug and drug paraphernalia possession if they called 911 for help, according to the state Department of Health’s website.
Those who call 911 will not be arrested for drug and drug paraphernalia possession, under the law. But the law does not prevent police from serving arrest or search warrants that were already in process on someone who calls for help after an overdose, the DPH said.
A second Good Samaritan Law passed in 2014 extends protection from civil liability and criminal prosecution to those who administer Naloxone to an overdose victim.
“The problem has been the understanding of the Good Samaritan Law,” said Julia Scharnberg, grants and program director of the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation, which supports the task force. “Everyone needs a good understanding of that law. If you have warrants, they will arrest you. If there are firearms or a fatality, they will want to know where did the drugs come from so they can be tested. The law is not a blanket policy.”
It’s a conversation that the community needs to have, Scharnberg said.
“We need a much better understanding of the law and there needs to be better messaging,” she said.