The team of people involved in addressing the opioid crisis in southeastern Connecticut marked their progress Friday at an event commemorating International Overdose Awareness Day but said barriers to treatment remain.

The Opioid Action Team of the Health Improvement Collaborative of Southeastern Connecticut hosted the overdose awareness and prevention event, which started with an informational hearing and a call to action for state legislators and agency heads.

New London's Human Services Director Jeanne Milstein outlined a host of "asks" from the team, such as establishing a system to independently evaluate and prove oversight of treatment providers, and getting state lawmakers' support for removing the requirement, under federal law, that physicians obtain a special waiver before prescribing medication such as Suboxone, which treats the cravings and withdrawal symptoms caused by opioid addiction.

Milstein said that's a barrier to medication-assisted treatment, the practice of combining therapy with medications that reduce the symptoms of withdrawal, because oftentimes "someone needs a prescription right away, not a few days from now while we're waiting for approval."

That can be the difference between life and death, said Donnie Rose, a recovery navigator. The Opioid Action Team established the recovery navigator program in April 2018 to seek out people who might be struggling with addiction and provide them with information about services that could help them.

Recovery navigators, who spend time visiting places where people may be struggling with addiction, encourage people to consider medication-assisted treatment and discuss safer ways to use, such as using Alliance for Living's syringe exchange program, or keeping the overdose-reversal drug naloxone on hand.

"The feedback that we've received from people engaging with the recovery navigators and with our syringe services program is that they feel valued and supported ... and that's what we need to expand out into the full community is the understanding that those services work, that it's a public health intervention that's needed in every community," said Kelly Thompson, executive director of Alliance for Living.

People who inject drugs are five times more likely to seek treatment if they already are seeking services at a syringe program, she said.

Since the inception of the recovery navigator program, which is funded through nearly $400,000 in grant money, recovery navigators have engaged with more than 300 community members, many of whom are at varying stages of treatment, said Jennifer Muggeo, supervisor of administration, finance and special projects for Ledge Light Health District, which oversees the grants.

New this year, she said, a doctor accompanies the navigators three times a month to prescribe medication for opioid use disorder or alcohol use disorder.

"It removes that barrier of expecting somebody to go into a building. Then the navigator is there to bring them to the pharmacy, if necessary, and connect them with follow-up care in the community," Muggeo said.

The doctor has written prescriptions for more than 30 people so far, most of whom have gone on to stay engaged in care, she said.

Rose, who said he's been sober for 14 years, said he has a number of success stories to share from his work as a navigator. He cited the case of a man who received medicated-assisted treatment and began showing up to his court cases, got a job and got his child back. Rose also helped the man address a transportation issue.

"As he got on medical-based treatment, everything else fell into place," Rose said. "It gave him the opportunity to start living a productive life."

Mayor Michael Passero says the system is working and has helped take pressure of first responders, who now have someone to call when they respond to an overdose. In fact, firefighters are now part of the process. Two days a week, a uniformed firefighter accompanies the navigators to visit addresses where people have overdosed.

"All the efforts we've put into training our first responders are really paying off, people are really compassionate and really understanding," Milstein said.

j.bergman@theday.com