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Catholic Charities of the Albany Diocese is fighting what may be an opioid and heroin epidemic in the Capital Region.

For the past two years, staff from Catholic Charities' Care Coordination Services, based in Albany, have been visiting community centers, schools, care providers, substance abuse treatment centers and homeless shelters to train staffers there in preventing opioid overdoses. Parents and relatives of active drug users - or the users themselves - often take the Catholic Charities training.

Opioids are medications that relieve pain by numbing pain signals reaching the brain; this class includes hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine and codeine. The Catholic Charities agency has trained about 1,000 people across all 14 counties of the Diocese to understand risk factors for an opioid overdose: having overdosed before, using after a period of sobriety, other health conditions, mixing drugs and the fickle purity of street drugs.

The training also covers what the drugs do to the body and how to handle an overdose.

For families
"This is just another tool we can give people so they can stay alive until they can get treatment," said Keith Brown, executive director of Care Coordination Services. "For family members, this is one of the things we can give them for peace of mind.

"It's a lot of parents who have kids who have either overdosed before or are concerned" who sign up for the training sessions, he said: "I've talked to parents before who have said they stayed up all night watching their kid breathe."

At the end of June, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that will pave the way for improved treatment options, harsher penalties for distributing illegal drugs and more public awareness campaigns. It will also allow for greater access to naloxone, an overdose antidote that the Catholic Charities agency distributes in kits to training participants.

A nurse practitioner previously had to assist the program with writing prescriptions for naloxone, but that restriction has been lifted.

"That's a huge advantage for us," Mr. Brown said, noting that naloxone has no effect if opioids are absent.

Growing crisis
Heroin abuse has been drawing national attention in recent years. According to the Governor's office, the number of heroin and prescription opioid treatment admission cases in New York State increased from 63,793 to 89,269 between 2004 and 2013.

"Opiates have exploded over the past 10 years," Mr. Brown said.

Addictions often start when patients develop a physical dependency to prescribed medications, he explained: "Opiates are really good at making people sick when they stop using them. People who are in withdrawal will do whatever it takes to not feel that way."

Public awareness and preventive legislation in recent years has made it harder for people to "shop" for doctors who may write extra prescriptions, so they turn to dealers. Heroin bought on the street tends to be cheaper than other opioids, Mr. Brown said.

In addition, he said, "There's a misconception that all people have to do is decide to get treatment and they can get it." Methadone clinics are few and far between in the Capital Region - Mr. Brown only knows of one in Amsterdam and one in Albany - and are reporting growing waiting lists.

Seeking solutions
Before the new legislation, individuals seeking treatment faced red tape from insurance companies.

The training program is "definitely part of the solution," Mr. Brown said. "We're keeping people alive and we're helping them navigate the system."

Care Coordination Services has made a few dozen referrals for drug users to treatment programs and self-help groups. The agency also tries to educate the public on New York State's 911 Good Samaritan Law, which protects reporters of drug and alcohol overdoses from prosecution.

The Catholic Charities training details how to handle an overdose:

•  Try to rouse the affected individual before calling 911;

•  give two rescue breaths; and

•  administer the antidote, which can be given through syringe or nasal spray. The drug will send the person into withdrawal and create uncomfortable symptoms.

Catholic Charities staff visited a Nar-Anon family group where users themselves came out for the training.

"People are reaching out to us," Mr. Brown said. "It's about preserving families."

The training is offered every Monday at 5 p.m. at Care Coordination Services' Albany office. It is funded through the State Department of Health and is the only community training provider in the region.

Catholic Charities' Care Coordination Services will partner with state Sen. Kathleen Marchione's office to provide opiate overdose prevention trainings:

•  July 21, Halfmoon Town Hall, 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.;
•  July 22, Brunswick Volunteer Fire Company, 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.; and
•  July 24, Hudson Elks Lodge, 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. [[In-content Ad]]

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