HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 1, 2021 (HealthDay Information) — The US’ first overdose prevention facilities have opened in New York Metropolis within the Manhattan neighborhoods of East Harlem and Washington Heights.
Folks will be capable of convey their medication and use them underneath the supervision of skilled workers members who will present clear needles, forestall overdoses and provide connections to addiction companies to those that have an interest, metropolis officers mentioned.
Cities and states nationwide have pushed for overdose prevention websites in recent times because the nation’s opioid epidemic has worsened.
“If you consider a public well being response to a disaster and also you wish to triage folks to cease it, that is one intervention more than likely to try this,” Caleb Banta-Inexperienced, principal analysis scientist on the College of Washington’s Addictions, Drug and Alcohol Institute, advised NBC Information. “They’re doing it in a lot of the world, so we’re actually sort of late to the sport.”
Critics argue that such websites would create areas that encourage drug use, however Banta-Inexperienced mentioned they cease folks from utilizing medication alone, one thing that tremendously will increase the chance of a deadly overdose. Related packages already in use in Australia, Europe and Canada have already made a dent in fatalities: In keeping with NBC Information, overdose prevention websites in Vancouver lower the speed of deadly overdoses there by 35%.
There have been greater than 90,000 overdose deaths in the USA in 2020, in response to the usCenters for Illness Management and Prevention. Greater than 2,000 of these have been in New York Metropolis, in response to an official assertion asserting the brand new facilities.
“The nationwide overdose epidemic is a five-alarm hearth in public well being, and now we have to deal with this disaster concurrently with our COVID battle,” New York Metropolis Well being Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi mentioned within the statement. “Giving folks a secure, supportive area will save lives and convey folks in from the streets, bettering life for everybody concerned. Overdose prevention facilities are a key a part of broader hurt discount.”
Extra info
Go to the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention for extra on opioids.
SOURCE: NBC Information
