Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Watchful Eyes: At Peer-Run Injection Sites, Drug Users Help Each Other Stay Safe

    Vancouver's safe drug injection sites have been credited with increasing drug users access to treatment while also decreasing dangerous behaviors like needle sharing. Now, Vancouver is also seeing a rise in peer-run pop-up safe drug injection sites, where people may feel less stigma and judgement; the sites are supported by Vancouver's public health authorities and law enforcement.

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  • Tenants Struggling With Mental Illness Found Safety in the “Hotel of Last Resort”

    Many people who struggle with mental health and substance abuse have trouble maintaining a consistent living situation. The Portland Hotel in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver came to be operated by a woman named Liz Evans who decided to give the mentally ill residents a safe place to live, regardless of outbursts or poor living habits or drug use. Removing the fear of eviction improved the mental health of the residents and is the same philosophy implemented now by the Portland Hotel Society.

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  • Lessons from Vancouver: U.S. cities consider supervised injection facilities

    In Vancouver, supervised injection facilities get drug users off the street and under the watchful eyes of trained medical professionals. This is a response to the huge number of overdose death in the city. The sites have now been active for fifteen years and have not seen one overdose death on their premises.

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  • Community in Unity: Recovery Behind Bars

    Prisons can reduce recidivism if they provide people who are incarcerated with drug and alcohol treatment, as it helps inmates address underlying issues. People who have been in and out of prison tell their stories about the success of these treatments at a public event organized and recorded by Alaska Public Media. Many participants said more solutions will happen when the question “What's wrong with you?” is replaced with “What happened to you?”

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  • San Francisco may be the first city in the nation to open safe injection sites

    San Francisco considers the scaling of safe injection sites, which were successfully piloted in Vancouver, to become the first city in the United States to offer this service. However, the main challenge of starting such a service in San Francisco is helping the public get over the concern that safe injection sites encourage drug use for non-abusers. Community groups actively educated the public on the benefits of safe injection sites and politicians made trips to Vancouver to observe the success in action.

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  • When an Iowa Family Doctor Takes On the Opioid Epidemic

    Primary care practioners are prescribing buprenorphine to patients struggling with opioid substance use disorder, providing a support for medication-assisted recovery. Practices use a team-based approach and grant funding to provide this support and overcome the challenges of limited staff capacity and insufficient reimbursement.

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  • Nebraska prisons playing major role in mental health care

    Nebraska prisons house many of the state's mentally ill, and they are working on comprehensive care for them. Prisons work to improve outcomes and reduce recidivism through mentorship programs. The Mental Health Association runs programs in Nebraska prisons and trains peer supporters on the inside.

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  • Prescribing Opioids: How Many Are Too Many?

    Doctors at Johns Hopkins and Rutgers New Jersey Medical School are striving to establish new guidelines that are specific to surgical procedure and patient circumstance for prescribing opioids. The general consensus is this: every patient's needs must be assessed individually, alternatives to opiates should always be considered first, and no patients with acute pain should ever be sent home with more than a few days' worth of opiates.

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  • Beyond Books: How Libraries Are the Latest Front in the Opioid Fight

    Librarians across the nation are being trained to administer naloxone, a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose. In Denver’s Central Library, 350 staff members were trained to administer the drug. “Libraries in New Orleans, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Salt Lake County, Utah, among others, are also stocking the overdose reversal drug.”

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  • The Opioid Solution

    Although the opioid epidemic has spread across America, this story argues that local solutions are needed. In Allentown, when somebody overdoses on opioids, they get a visit from a Blue Guardian, a trained volunteer that connects the individual to treatment. The outreach program also focuses on reaching out to the families of addicts. In 2017, the program aided nearly 1,000 addicts to get treatment.

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