Lorain County Public Health, volunteers distribute naloxone door-to-door

AMHERST — A spike in overdoses prompted Lorain County Public Health staff and volunteers to take to the streets in Amherst, Elyria and Lorain on Saturday morning to hand out naloxone in affected neighborhoods. Dozens of staff and volunteers donned neon-yellow shirts with purple ribbons printed on the front, rolling boxes of prepacked naloxone kits, each with two doses of the opioid overdose-reversing drug. Groups hit central and south Elyria; central, east and west Lorain; and neighborhoods scattered in Amherst to hand out more than 500 kits and place door hangers with more information where residents weren't home. Erin Murphy, director of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention at Lorain County Public Health, said the locations chosen Saturday were based on alerts LCPH received with heightened overdose rates in recent months. "There's a number of factors that give us an overdose alert from all different sources of data — it could be EMS calls, emergency room visits, and that kind of pings us and says 'an overdose alert has been detected,'" she said. Those anomalies include three instances in May with up to 10 overdoses in a 24-hour time period: May 14 saw 10 individuals overdose, with nine on May 7 and eight on May 1. Saturday was the first time LCPH staff had done a door-to-door distribution in residential areas. During last summer's distribution, staff contacted businesses or hosted pop-up sites in communities for individuals to walk up and get the kits. LCPH plans to compare how many kits were distributed Saturday, along with any kits requested online, over the phone or in person at the Health Department to see if the door-to-door distribution was effective. The kits aren't just for intravenous drug users, she said, as synthetic fentanyl is showing up in cocaine, meth and fake pressed Adderall or Xanax pills — so someone buying items on the street may not be getting what they expect. "Unfortunately, our coroner's office is saying 'Yes, we've seen it in cocaine, we've seen it in these other drugs that people were using,'" she said. "It's kind of a myth-busting thing. … I do think there's a mentality like 'I don't do heroin, I'm not an IV drug user.' Well, it's really not the deciding factor anymore." As the opioid epidemic has raged for years, the number of fatal overdoses has been on a downward trend, thanks in part to residents' access to naloxone and a decrease in the stigma surrounding the issue. Murphy said they've had more community partners open to hosting a pop-up distribution at their agency or business — even those that have nothing to do with addiction services or mental health — and LCPH has seen an increase in health care provider trainings for medication-assisted treatment of addiction, meaning it isn't a niche issue anymore. "The most important message we're trying to get out really is that recovery is possible, (and) Narcan saves lives," she said. "Having Narcan as part of your first-aid kit is not a bad idea — particularly if you know someone who uses drugs, if you yourself use drugs, but for everyone else it's just a nice thing to have on hand too." Residents who would like a free naloxone kit can request one at loraincountyhealth.com/opioids or by calling (440) 322-6367, or visit the Lorain County Public Health offices at 9880 S. Murray Ridge Road, Elyria, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.