Tag: opioids

Even before the year is officially over, health officials are declaring 2018 to be a landmark in Philadelphia’s opioid crisis, marking the first time in at least five years that overdose deaths will have declined. More people sought treatment. More doses of Narcan, the lifesaving overdose reversal spray, were handed out in the city’s hardest-hit neighborhoods.

 

In short, “all the key numbers are moving in the right direction,” Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said last week.

http://www.philly.com/health/opioid-crisis-addiction-philadelphia-overdose-death-toll–20181224.html

By Aubrey Whelan

Allison Herens, with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, said she started carrying Narcan when she was hired to be the city’s first harm-reduction coordinator. She attended a training on how to use it, then picked it up from a pharmacy. The next day, while riding SEPTA, she said she saw a man overdosing and administered the Narcan, saving his life.

“What most people don’t know about that story is I only actually had the medication because I went to a second pharmacy the day I went to get it,” said Herens. “The first pharmacy not only gave me pushback about using my insurance, but didn’t have it in stock.”

https://whyy.org/articles/we-want-to-have-the-naloxone-ready-philly-pennsylvania-hand-out-free-kits/

By Nina Feldman

In Philadelphia and in Delaware County and across the state public health workers are busy getting Naloxone into people’s hands for free.

The medication can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose if given in time.

Meg Carter of the Philadelphia Health Department said, “The more people that carry Naloxone and understand what it does and why it is important and can help.”

https://6abc.com/free-narcan-available-starting-thursday-in-the-delaware-valley/4893106/

By John Rawlins

Meg Carter has this to say about why she believes it changes and saves lives.

“If a person’s overdosing, you don’t know what part of their journey they’re in. So they may not be ready for treatment yet but maybe tomorrow they will be. So if you are saving a person’s life and tomorrow they are ready to enter treatment, any life saved is a life saved,” Carter says.

https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2018/12/12/free-narcan-being-distributed-across-pennsylvania-on-dec-13/amp/

By staff

At the Walgreens in the shadow of the SEPTA El stop at Kensington and Allegheny Avenues, the city Health Department’s harm reduction coordinator, Allison Herens, recalled the day after she decided to start carrying Naloxone, she was put to the test.

While taking SEPTA, she saw a man across the platform was overdosing.

“Using training I had literally just gotten, and the Naloxone in my bag, I was able to save his life,” she explained.

https://kywnewsradio.radio.com/articles/news/pa-battles-opioid-overdose-giving-away-thousands-narcan-kits

By Steve Tawa

The success of these efforts will depend on the enforcement of these regulations, which would fall to the Department of Public Health.
The impact of these bills will probably not be huge; in fact, both bills are rather innovative and so far untested. But when people are dying daily, Council should signal it’s taking it seriously by exploring other legislative solutions on such issues as expanding access to treatment and regulation of recovery houses.  Enacting these two bills would be a first step.

http://www2.philly.com/philly/opinion/editorials/opioid-crisis-philly-city-council-editorial-20181121.html

By Inquirer Editorial Board

Overdose deaths between April and June rose by about 11 percent compared with the previous two quarters.
“This still represents a kind of leveling-off in opioid-related fatalities over the last three quarters,” said Kendra Viner, manager of the Philadelphia Health Department’s opioid surveillance program. “The bad news is that we’re not seeing the decline in fatalities we’d really like to see. And if this trend continues, we’ll probably end 2018 with maybe just under the total number of fatalities that we saw in 2017.”

http://www2.philly.com/philly/health/addiction/philadelphias-overdose-death-rate-remains-stubbornly-high-20181120.html

By Aubrey Whelan

“We’re trying to make carrying Narcan, unfortunately, just a normal part of what people do,” city Health Commissioner Thomas Farley told me. He said the department still fields complaints from customers who can’t find it on the shelves of pharmacies.

http://www2.philly.com/philly/columnists/mike_newall/philadelphia-city-council-narcan-standing-order-pharmacists-20181115.html

By Mike Newall

Recognizing ongoing access issues, a Philadelphia City Council committee on Tuesday recommended a bill that would require pharmacies to have at least one naloxone pack (with two doses) in stock. Council is expected to vote on the measure next week.

“We did a survey and found 25 percent of pharmacies don’t have it,” city Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said. “We want 100 percent to have it on hand.”

http://www2.philly.com/philly/health/some-pharmacies-thwart-efforts-to-improve-access-to-the-opioid-overdose-reversal-drug-20181114.html

By Marie McCullough

To make the drug even more easily available, a City Council committee approved a bill mandating that all pharmacies in Philadelphia stock it. Recent studies show that fewer than half of city pharmacies do carry it.

The legislation is part of the city’s promotion and distribution of naloxone. Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said that, since June of 2017, his department has given out more than 57,000 doses of Narcan to people in a position to administer it.

https://whyy.org/articles/philly-may-require-all-pharmacies-to-stock-overdose-reversal-drug-naloxone/

By Nina Feldman

Sharps deposit boxes are Philadelphia’s newest tool in its four-week-old recovery campaign for opioid-plagued Kensington. Last week, the Philadelphia Public Health Department installed seven of the safe syringe disposal bins at SEPTA stops and public parks throughout the Kensington neighborhood where Mayor Jim Kenney declared a ‘disaster’ earlier this month. The new waste bins are the size and shape of curbside mail dropboxes —  the hope is that people will dump their used hypodermics there, instead of leaving them on the ground.

http://planphilly.com/articles/2018/10/31/needle-drop-boxes-land-in-kensington-parks-and-septa-stations

By Nina Feldman