AUSTIN, Texas — The Opioid Emergency Response Program in Travis County aims to combat opioid overdoses.
Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) started the program with Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services over a year ago and, since then, Commander Blake Hardy said they have saved more than 200 people from dying because of an overdose.
The EMS opioid response team connects survivors to medication-assisted treatment, prevention education and peer recovery support. They also follow up at survivors’ homes to assist in accessing resources.
Hardy said they get five to six opioid overdose calls a month, which is down from last year. He said this may be thanks to opioid overdose rescue kits they hand out. The kit comes with gloves, along with a fentanyl test strip.
"Heroin is not good for you; it can be deadly and dangerous enough, and fentanyl increases that by a magnitude," he said.
Hardy said within the past year, they have seen an increase in fentanyl-laced drugs in Texas, and that could lead to more overdoses. But the kit has something for that as well.
"Naloxone directly reverses opioid overdose and it doesn't really have any other effects on the body," said Hardy.
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He said the medication immediately restores breathing during an overdose. Hardy added right now they refill at least 10 kits a month.
"If you wind up using this kit we want to get you more because that is what it is there for," said Hardy. "It doesn't fix their abuse disorder, but it keeps them from hopefully dying today so that they can get treatment."
According to HHS, Travis County has one of the highest rates of opioid-related deaths in Texas. Hardy said this could be due to Travis county's large homeless population.
"We tend to treat people experiencing homelessness with dignity and care and that probably encourages more of them to come here," he said. "There are a decent percentage of people experiencing homelessness who are addicted to opioids, certainly not all of them."
Hardy said the delay between someone wanting medication-assisted treatment and actually getting it could also be behind the opioid-related deaths.
"If you could imagine delay, it means withdrawal symptoms, which encourage people to use again," said Hardy.
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