The Community Paramedicine Approach to the Opioid Epidemic

Managing the opioid epidemic with mobile integrated healthcare programs A recent meeting between police and recovering addicts provided fascinating insight into the great extent of the opioid epidemic. Most of the dozen or so officers in the workgroup shared that the epidemic had an impact on their personal lives. One detective shared that her colleagues, burned out from too many overdose responses, had verbally attacked her son when he was arrested for heroin use and possession. They told him he was a "scumbag" and an embarrassment to his mother. According to the detective, her son was neither-he was simply an addict. The recovering addicts in the meeting had all become advocates of recovery, dedicated to helping others through the process of getting and staying clean. In addition to their addiction, they shared another common trait: They had all been resuscitated with naloxone multiple times before they sought out the help they needed. Each participant described how they had been "narcanned" at least three and sometimes up to seven times. All of them had also personally experienced the blunt end of police and EMS burnout: They were resuscitated, then insulted. The magnitude of the opioid epidemic is unprecedented and growing. (See Figure 1) If EMS agencies are going to play a role in their communities' response to the threat, we'll need to change in order to meet the challenge. Fortunately, the evolution of mobile integrated healthcare and community para...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Patient Care Mobile Integrated Healthcare Source Type: news