4 August 31 - september 6, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents to speak with the client in the days immedi- ately following an overdose: The successful contact came following the third separate overdose the client had suffered. “The previous two times that engagement was attempted,” the peer specialist said, “[the client] was in the hospital (once in ICU), so we were unable to engage him in any follow- up services. On the third attempt, he was sit- ting outside when we approached the residence. After introductions and explaining why we were there, he immediately ex- pressed that he was ready and willing to do whatever he needed to do to get help.” The next day the peer specialist returned to help the client navigate treatment options in the area that he could begin right away. The client got emotional as he explained that he had been using drugs for over 50 years and this would be his first real attempt at sobriety. He was surprised at how fast the peer specialist was working, but was ready for a new start after his latest overdose two days earlier. If that sounds (almost) too simple and straightforward, that’s because it is. The peer specialist confirmed availability with one local facility, which sent an Uber to pick up the client that afternoon. But a couple of hours later, the client called the peer special- ist in a panic. The facility didn’t have a bed for him after all, and he was scared to go back home now that he had made the deci- sion to get help. Frantically, the peer special- ist reached out to colleagues, who helped find a suitable alternative that day. According to the peer specialist, that cli- ent is still working through the treatment program. It’s safe to say he likely wouldn’t have known about or had access to the pro- gram without the opioid response team helping him to understand his options and to navigate the barriers to receiving the treatment. That knowledge, combined with the unique perspective peer specialists pro- vide, can be a powerful combination for peo- ple who need help the most to finally get it. T he certified recovery support peer specialists employed by Recovery Re- source Council who help make up the opioid response team in Dallas are indeed peers of the program’s clients. Addicts who have been in long-term recovery themselves, the peer specialists can relate to an active drug user in a way no one else can — as long as they make contact. Michael Watkins is one of the peer spe- cialists at Recovery Resource Council. He’s been in abstinence-based recovery since getting sober in 2012. That lived experience as an addict is both essential to becoming a peer specialist and invaluable in genuinely connecting with prospective clients. “My experience is the ally that I use,” Watkins said. “When I was out there doing what I was doing, I didn’t want to stop and I always thought I would figure it out at some point. I had to get broken down to a point where I was finally like, ‘You know what? I don’t want this anymore, but I don’t know what else to do.’ The people who really helped me came to me when I ended up at the hospital, and they said they were there to help me and tell me what I needed to do if I was serious about it.” Certainly an understanding of what has worked for him through more than a decade of recovery is useful to Watkins and other peer specialists aiming to help overdose pa- tients find their way to help. But that back- ground doesn’t mean all scenarios they enter are the same, nor does it mean that knocking on the door of someone who over- dosed on opioids a day or two before will ever yield predictable results. “You really never know what to expect, so I just always try to be myself,” he said. “In many cases, these people aren’t used to people like us knocking on their doors. My hope is that I can say, ‘Look, this is my ex- perience, and this is how I can help. I’m not here to make you do anything you don’t want to do or to do anything the same way I did it.’” O n the surface, it might be hard to tell just how successful the ORT has been so far. Of the nearly 1,500 overdoses treated by Dallas Fire-Rescue so far in 2023, the ORT, which did not begin its partnership with the city until late January, has assisted just over 60 overdose patients by providing harm reduction supplies such as Narcan and resources they could use to contact the ORT directly should they be ready to proceed into recovery further. Of that number, 20 have been connected to follow-up services for treatment and recovery. Clearly, those numbers mean the over- whelming majority of overdoses treated by DFR in 2023 have not had the help of the ORT for one reason or another. But it also means that in just a few months, dozens of people who have been in drug-related dan- ger in Dallas now have at least an under- standing of what sort of help is available to them that they were unaware of before, or they are finally getting the assistance they need. That’s a lot of brightened futures. There are also logical reasons for the dis- parity. DFR conducts a screening process each time paramedics administer Narcan, and not every one of those patients are sub- mitted for ORT follow-up. In addition, the locations given to ORT come from 911 data, which means it’s where paramedics treated the overdose. Often, it’s not the home ad- dress of the person being sought. Then there are the people who slam the door or refuse to answer the door for the ORT, and it’s easy to understand the gap be- tween 911 calls for opioid overdoses and new clients who have been assisted in some way by the ORT. Regardless, the positive impact is large but hard to truly quantify. Tell those who were likely moments away from dying only a few days earlier, or tell their family and friends, that since they were one of only a small percentage of Dallas over- doses to receive help it’s anything but a triumph. Just before the ORT began operating, DFR Battalion Chief Scott Clumpner, who oversees the DFR side of the program, told the Observer that going beyond simply ad- ministering Narcan to overdose patients represented a desire to “get out ahead of” the problem. But he also noted it did not necessarily represent a change to any of his staff’s overall goal. “The goal of this program is to prevent death,” Clumpner said. H arm reduction is one way to hope- fully prevent death, and, unsurpris- ingly, it’s become a politically charged topic. Critics of harm reduction practices suggest that handing out Narcan or attempts to legalize fentanyl test strips embolden drug users. Becky Tinney, special projects director at Recovery Resource Council, doesn’t subscribe to this point of view. “We’re meeting our clients where they are,” she said. “So that sometimes means we’ll meet them in a place where harm re- duction is needed because it’s keeping them alive with the hope that the day will come when they do want to talk about next steps with us.” Watkins points to the troubling and dras- tic rise of fentanyl use as a key reason harm reduction practices are perhaps more im- portant than ever before. Cheaper and more powerful than other opioids, fentanyl can af- fect opioid addicts in ways that can’t be overlooked. “If fentanyl had been around when I was in my early 20s, I guarantee I Nathan Hunsinger Recovery Resource’s supplies; Left: close up of a dose of NARCAN nasal spray. >> p6 Unfair Park from p3
