Recovery Advocate

Mobile Addiction Services Stop Overdoses

SAVING LIVES DAILY –

Nov. 16, 2023 – Reducing overdose deaths goes beyond helping people stop using opioids, panelists said. It also requires offering harm reduction resources, like sterile needles, that make using less dangerous. Providing tools to use illegal drugs more safely doesn’t conflict with efforts to help people stop using them, Soth said. “I personally believe that harm reduction is treatment, and it’s part of the treatment continuum,” he said. “If people are dead, they’re not going to recover.”

Clinicians with Homeless Health Care Los Angeles walk through encampments offering medications that can reduce the risk of death from overdose. In 2006, the group started using naloxone, now a common tool for harm reduction. Naloxone can reverse overdoses, but it can also “pull someone into a withdrawal” said JoAnn Hemstreet, a licensed clinical social worker with Homeless Health Care Los Angeles. “Someone might need to go use again in order to make themselves feel better, which could put them at risk again,” she said. 

The teams also use compressed oxygen, which “is much more gentle,” Hemstreet said. 

In addition to overdose prevention, homeless people who use opiates need shelter options that don’t require them to be in addiction treatment, Hemstreet said. Motel voucher programs can be especially helpful, she said.

READ@AHCJ

C Luke

Recent Posts

California Wants Social Media To Have ‘black box warning’ For Kids

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE? – Dec. 19, 2024 - Assembly Bill 56 (AB 56) proposes…

2 days ago

Lily Allen Shares the Moment She Hit ‘Rock Bottom’

AND STOPPED DIGGING – Dec. 4, 2024 - In a new interview with The Times,…

2 days ago

170 Million Americans Learn Deadly Toxin is Toxic

NOT JUST IN PENCILS – Dec. 8, 2024 - Americans born before 1966 experienced “significantly…

2 days ago

Famous Child Star After Opening Up About Addiction

AS SUCCESSFUL AS EVER – Dec. 3, 2024 - Family Affair actor Johnny Whitaker looked…

2 days ago

Top 10 Things Families Can Do to Avoid Common Rehab Pitfalls

ALANON Plus – Dec. 7, 2024 - A high percentage of treatment failures occur due…

2 days ago

Poet Nikki Giovanni – Passes at 81

AUDIO – A GIANT IS GONE – Dec. 10, 2024 - Nikki Giovanni, the poet,…

2 days ago