Lynn to hire soldier for war on drugs
LYNN — Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said the city will have another weapon in its fight against heroin deaths by hiring an outreach coordinator to organize drug awareness trainings, coordinator abuse prevention efforts, and get more local residents involved in stopping overdoses.
Armed with a five-year, $100,000 annual grant, the city is expanding efforts to prevent overdoses and overdose deaths working with drug prevention programs in Salem, Peabody and other communities.
“Any assistance we can get is a positive in our fight to combat drugs,” Kennedy said.
City Health Director Maryann O’Connor said the part-time coordinator will start working in May and help build on efforts by police, probation officers and treatment workers to end overdoses.
A city job description requires coordinator candidates to hold a bachelor’s degree or be a high school graduate with two years of human service experience. The coordinator will be paid $24 an hour and report to O’Connor.
“You really need someone dedicated who knows the community,” O’Connor said.
She said “Anonymous People,” a documentary film about heroin addiction, will be shown in June in Veterans Memorial Auditorium in City Hall, and broader efforts to educate people about Narcan, a drug that reverses overdoses, are underway.
Police Chief Kevin Coppinger praised plans to hire an outreach coordinator and said 119 overdoses and 13 overdose deaths occurred in the city to date this year.
“We are on track to beat last year’s record,” Coppinger said.
He said efforts aimed at preventing drug addiction coupled with treatment options for drug addicts are effective ways to reduce overdoses.
“I’d love to see an approach aimed at prevention. We need to put more assets into it,” Coppinger said.
Heroin overdoses killed 35 people in Lynn in 2014, and Coppinger explained during a North Shore Community College opiate addiction forum in January how a “dosage unit” of heroin costs five dollars on city streets.
Lynn is known, the chief said, as “a source city” for the drug buyers, and drug treatment centers in the city see successes as well as failures — with relapsed addicts seeking out heroin locally.
State Rep. Robert Fennell has filed legislation requiring doctors and hospital workers who treat someone for an overdose to share information with police. Another Fennell bill allows police or emergency room personnel to hold someone treated for an overdose “in protective custody” and give them information on counseling and treatment options.
continued here http://www.itemlive.com/news/lynn-t...cle_2f54ab28-e3ed-11e4-8a86-5b45cd9f54c4.html
............................................
How does this not violate Hipaa laws?
Anybody else think the cops are not the answer to this one. I mean I guess we could give them another 40 years to utterly fail.
LYNN — Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said the city will have another weapon in its fight against heroin deaths by hiring an outreach coordinator to organize drug awareness trainings, coordinator abuse prevention efforts, and get more local residents involved in stopping overdoses.
Armed with a five-year, $100,000 annual grant, the city is expanding efforts to prevent overdoses and overdose deaths working with drug prevention programs in Salem, Peabody and other communities.
“Any assistance we can get is a positive in our fight to combat drugs,” Kennedy said.
City Health Director Maryann O’Connor said the part-time coordinator will start working in May and help build on efforts by police, probation officers and treatment workers to end overdoses.
A city job description requires coordinator candidates to hold a bachelor’s degree or be a high school graduate with two years of human service experience. The coordinator will be paid $24 an hour and report to O’Connor.
“You really need someone dedicated who knows the community,” O’Connor said.
She said “Anonymous People,” a documentary film about heroin addiction, will be shown in June in Veterans Memorial Auditorium in City Hall, and broader efforts to educate people about Narcan, a drug that reverses overdoses, are underway.
Police Chief Kevin Coppinger praised plans to hire an outreach coordinator and said 119 overdoses and 13 overdose deaths occurred in the city to date this year.
“We are on track to beat last year’s record,” Coppinger said.
He said efforts aimed at preventing drug addiction coupled with treatment options for drug addicts are effective ways to reduce overdoses.
“I’d love to see an approach aimed at prevention. We need to put more assets into it,” Coppinger said.
Heroin overdoses killed 35 people in Lynn in 2014, and Coppinger explained during a North Shore Community College opiate addiction forum in January how a “dosage unit” of heroin costs five dollars on city streets.
Lynn is known, the chief said, as “a source city” for the drug buyers, and drug treatment centers in the city see successes as well as failures — with relapsed addicts seeking out heroin locally.
State Rep. Robert Fennell has filed legislation requiring doctors and hospital workers who treat someone for an overdose to share information with police. Another Fennell bill allows police or emergency room personnel to hold someone treated for an overdose “in protective custody” and give them information on counseling and treatment options.
continued here http://www.itemlive.com/news/lynn-t...cle_2f54ab28-e3ed-11e4-8a86-5b45cd9f54c4.html
............................................
How does this not violate Hipaa laws?
Anybody else think the cops are not the answer to this one. I mean I guess we could give them another 40 years to utterly fail.
