By Liz Ferrell, Development & Community Outreach Specialist
It’s 1:00 a.m. on Sunday morning of a holiday weekend and you’re partying with your friends at somebody’s home. Every room in the house is packed with people; the music is loud and the conversation and laughter even louder; alcohol and drugs in startling quantities are available for the asking. But you hit your limit sometime back and now you’re worried about your friend. He’s been drinking heavily and a few minutes ago he admitted he had just taken a Roxy. Now his speech is slurred and he says he’s sleepy. Suddenly he stumbles to the door and you follow. He barely makes it outside before you see him puking behind a boxwood hedge. You help him inside and get him to a chair; his breathing is shallow, his skin is clammy and his face is taking on a bluish tint. What do you do?
HOPE Family Health exists for one reason: to provide healthcare for all. HOPE’s staff works
together daily toward our mission of reducing barriers to healthcare so we can offer the best care – sometimes life-saving care – to as many people as possible. That care takes various forms, according to each patient’s need and circumstances. And one all-too-common circumstance is opioid addiction.
Now, thanks to a grant from Tennessee’s Opioid Abatement Council, HOPE can help reduce the number of deaths due to opioid overdose in its service area: by making NARCAN®, fentanyl self-testing strips, and supplies of DisposeRx® accessible to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week, via Public Health Vending Machines.
You’re worried about your daughter. She just graduated high school and is living at home, getting ready for her freshman year at a nearby state university. Lately she’s been increasingly restless; she unexpectedly quit her part-time job and most evenings she leaves after dinner to hang out with friends. You occasionally smell alcohol on her breath but she has always sworn off recreational drug use, so you’ve never worried before. But she’s changing. She rarely interacts with you or has the in-depth conversations you once enjoyed with her. Her new approach to life seems to throw cares – and responsibility – to the wind. You wonder: Is she using? If so, where is she getting it? How does she know it won’t contain fentanyl? Sometimes she doesn’t seem to think the worst can happen to her. How can you talk to her? How can you be prepared for the worst?
Tennessee and the Opioid Crisis
You’ve seen the numbers. Opioid addiction is rampant in Middle Tennessee. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee ranks third in the nation for prescription drug abuse, and around 70,000 Tennessee residents suffer from addiction to opioids. Many common pain relievers, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine and morphine, as well as the synthetic drug fentanyl and the illegal street drug heroin, fall under the classification of opioid.
Nationwide, the number of overdose deaths attributable to opioids increased from 48% in 2000 to 75% in 2021. The percentage is even higher in Tennessee, where 2022 saw 3,073 Tennesseans die from opioid overdose – over 80% of drug overdose deaths statewide. Of those deaths due specifically to opioid overdose, over 91% involved fentanyl.
In 2022 the Tennessee legislature formed the Opioid Abatement Council to manage the disbursement of proceeds from numerous opioid-related lawsuits that yielded billions of dollars in settlement money. Legislators charged the OAC with the responsibility of making sure the money funds programs and strategies that address the misuse of opioids. Accordingly, the OAC has begun awarding numerous grants to fund projects with the end goal of reducing opioid addiction, overdoses (fatal and otherwise), and other issues that the ripple effect of addiction brings to families and communities.
Your brother is about to be released from in-patient rehab following his most recent 11/29 stint at the county jail. He will need to couch-surf with you and your other siblings until he can find work and get back on his feet. He has struggled with addiction in the past and you’re thankful he has taken advantage of his most recent incarceration to get help through the local drug court. How will he do on the outside? Will he have the strength he needs to stay clean? And what would you do if he relapsed and had an overdose while living with you? What can you do to safeguard your own medications? Can you trust him not to go through your cabinets?
HOPE’s New Tools and How They Work
Thanks to an OAC grant, HOPE now has three new “tools in our toolbox” that can literally save lives. The first two tools include naloxone (NARCAN®) kits and kits containing fentanyl self-testing strips, distributed free of charge through climate-controlled vending machines. The third tool provides DisposeRx® to individuals with opioid prescriptions. Here’s how each tool works.
NARCAN® (Naloxone) – NARCAN® is an easily administered nasal spray that works to reverse the effects of opioids on the brain and to restore breathing for a person who has overdosed. It can work within two minutes, and its effects last for 30 to 120 minutes. (Some overdose victims may require multiple doses.) Most importantly, NARCAN® is generally safe even for those with no opioids in their system. So if you think a person is suffering from an opioid overdose but you’re not sure, you can apply NARCAN® without worrying about harming them. For example, if someone is suffering another type of medical emergency such as cardiac arrest or a diabetic coma, administering naloxone generally will not have any effect or cause additional harm.
Fentanyl self-testing strips – Fentanyl test strips can detect the presence of fentanyl in different types of drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and meth, and in different forms, including pills, powder and injectables. Why is this important? After all, fentanyl has been available clinically since 1960 as an anesthetic and for severe or chronic pain as a patch or lozenge. Here’s why: Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than many prescription opioids, and as a synthetic, it’s inexpensive and easy to produce illegally in a lab. Drug dealers often mix fentanyl in with cocaine, heroin and meth, and in fake prescription drugs sold on the street, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, and benzodiazepines. For unsuspecting consumers, the result is all too often fatal.
DisposeRx® – DisposeRx® is the substance offered by police departments and pharmacies across the nation, especially on “Take Back Days.” Opioid addiction often starts at home with legally prescribed pain medication kept in cabinets that everyone in the house can access. Once the need for pain medication has passed, these powerful drugs can sit unused in a cabinet, effective well after their expiration date. For those vulnerable to the lure of opioids, leaving these meds so accessible poses a huge risk for abuse and even relapse for someone in recovery. DisposeRx® offers a simple solution. Each packet contains powder made of FDA-approved inactive drug ingredients. When the powder is poured into a bottle containing prescription meds and then mixed with water, it forms a gel that renders the pills ineffective.
Click here to find a video on how to administer NARCAN® to someone.
Initially, HOPE will have three indoor vending machines. The first machine was recently installed in the lobby of the HOPE Westmoreland facility at 1124 New Highway 52 West and is available during HOPE Family Health business hours. The second machine, slated for installation in mid-February, will be inside Corner Cleaners, located at 200 Church Street in Lafayette, and accessible to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Tentative plans are to place a third machine inside Coin Laundry on East Main Street in Hartsville.
HOPE continues to look for appropriate locations in Portland and in Gallatin.
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