New London opioid roundtable focuses on gaps in care
New London — Joseph Winski, chief of the Poquonnock Bridge Fire Department in Groton, said it’s a helpless feeling when firefighters can save the life of a heroin overdose patient but cannot prevent that same person from overdosing again.
“Where the system fails is when we go out on a first response and we’ll revive the person. We’ll get the person to an ambulance and the family turns to us in despair and asks ‘What do we do now?’ And we have nothing we can say,” Winski said. “How do we get from saving a life to getting them into a program?”
Winski was one of about a dozen participants in a roundtable discussion focused on the opioid addiction crisis hosted by U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, at the Science and Technology Magnet High School of Southeastern Connecticut.
Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Jonathan Harris was among other participants.
Winski said his firefighters have started carrying and handing out cards for the organization Community Speaks Out, whose founders, Tammy and Joe de la Cruz, voiced their own frustration at the difficulties in finding treatment for those in need.
Joe de la Cruz said while he appreciated the federal money being funneled to law enforcement as a reaction to the problem, more money needed to be diverted to education, treatment and prevention.
Others in the group said housing is equally scarce.
Courtney this week sent a letter signed by the 53 members of the House of Representatives calling for legislation that would provide $600 million in emergency appropriations for funding to not only law enforcement, but also to assist existing substance-abuse prevention and treatment programs.
Courtney said the House will vote next week on measures that address the opioid crisis but for the most part are things already being done — such as training for first responders and creation of an opioid task force.
The Congress has not had an “all hands on deck” approach that Courtney said is needed to address a problem that killed 28,647 people in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pointing to a graph highlighting overdose deaths across the country, Courtney said if it were a hurricane moving across the nation, “I think we’d be having a different conversation on getting resources.”
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