Pittsburgh launches new program aimed at breaking cycle of addiction
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Saturday is International Overdose Awareness Day, but nowhere is that problem more pressing than in Downtown Pittsburgh, where overdoses have become a weekly — and sometimes daily — occurrence.
There are more overdoses in Downtown Pittsburgh than anywhere else in the region. Oftentimes, first responders will revive people only to see them overdose again. Now, the city is instituting a program to break that cycle.
It's become a commonplace sight Downtown: people who overdose on the street, 911 is called and responding firefighters or EMTs administer naloxone — the miraculous reversal agent that most times can bring someone back from death's door but not always.
In the past five years, according to statistics, first responders have been administering naloxone on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. But the number of overdoses is on a climbing trajectory with no end in sight.
Last year, responders administered naloxone 81 times to people Downtown. At the same time, 22 people died from fatal overdoses in the Golden Triangle. But the city says those who survive mostly go back to using, only to overdose again.
"What is happening is people are not going to the hospital. They are refusing to get further medical treatment," said Camila Alarcon-Chelecki of the city's Office of Community Health and Safety
"What's happening now is that people are just lost and they keep overdosing," she added.
Paramedics and EMTs are seeing and reversing the same people time and again. Now, the city is launching a new program aimed at breaking that cycle. The city's Office of Community Health and Safety is creating intervention teams to intercede when someone overdoses on the street.
"This team will work with EMS. It's a team of two people. It's a case manager and peer," Alarcon-Chelecki said.
Using a federal grant, the city will create three teams of two people to intervene when someone overdoses. The case manager will try to offer some guidance if the person is experiencing homelessness or is involved in the criminal justice system. The peers would be recovering addicts themselves who can try to steer the person into a recovery program.
The city is instituting one team and two others will follow. The hope is they can intervene in the lives of these people and get them on the road to recovery