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Making Addiction Treatment More Realistic and Pragmatic: The Perfect Should Not Be the Enemy of the Good
Last year saw drug overdose deaths in the U.S. surpass an unthinkable milestone: 100,000 deaths in a year. This is the highest number of drug overdoses in our country’s history, and the numbers are climbing every month. There is an urgent need for a nationwide, coordinated response that...
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SAMHSA Announces Unprecedented $30 Million Harm Reduction Grant Funding Opportunity to Help Address the Nation’s Substance Use and Overdose Epidemic
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is now accepting applications for the first-ever SAMHSA Harm Reduction grant program and expects to issue $30 million in grant awards. This funding, authorized by the American Rescue Plan, will help increase access to a range of...
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Information and Answers for People Who Use Drugs or Have Substance Use Disorder During COVID-19
Having a substance use disorder can make you more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19. People who use drugs may also have underlying medical conditions that put them at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19, and they may have concerns and questions related to their risk....
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Fentanyl Test Strips as a Form of Harm Reduction: Study Outcomes
Every seven hours someone dies of a drug overdose in New York City, opioids-involved deaths comprise more than 80% of all overdose deaths, and fentanyl; a highly potent opioid is involved in approximately half of all overdose deaths. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued a nationwide alert in...
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Collaborative Impact Needed for the Opioid Epidemic
Acacia Network, the leading Latino integrated care nonprofit in NY, began in 1969 to address the consequences of heroin in the South Bronx. Our founding leaders, Carlos Pagan, Julio Martinez, Gumersindo Martinez, Hector Diaz, Evalina Lopez Antonetty, and Lorraine Montengreo, among others,...
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Reducing Opioid Overdose Deaths: NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Responses
Let us address the epidemiology of overdose deaths in New York City. Like cities and states around the United States, New York City is in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic. In 2016, someone died every seven hours of an overdose in New York City, resulting in 1,374 confirmed deaths. More New...
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Taking Care into the Streets to Reduce Harm and Save Lives: The Vital Role of Needle Exchange and Harm Reduction Services within the Healthcare Delivery System
Harm Reduction is rooted in acknowledging that a person who is an active drug user deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, including being offered safe access to clean syringes and naloxone. This work can be done while building trust and opening the door to recovery options. Harm reduction...
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Mental Health Services and Opioid Use and Dependence: A Non-Sequitur?
What does mental health have to do with mitigating the opioid epidemic? Isn’t it a problem for substance disorder programs, or addiction doctors? Well not really, if you consider the rates of opioid use and opioid use disorder (OUD) in patients seen in the community-based, non-profits in NYS...
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Joint Senate Task Force on Opioids, Addiction and Overdose Prevention Testimony
In 1804, Frederich Serturner experimented with opium and created something new—morphine—named after the Greek god of sleep and dreams, Morpheus. More than 200 years later, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers fall asleep at night under the influence of an opioid. Every morning, a few of...
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Integration of Naloxone Distribution in a Federally Qualified Health Center
As the opioid epidemic has become a growing public health crisis in New York and the greater United States, it is incumbent upon health care centers to expand our ability to treat those in need. As of one the largest Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in New York State, providing integrated...
