As overdose deaths soar to record highs, patchwork funding streams complicate how harm reduction programs can schedule services | ✍️ dilpreetraju Chicago addiction harmreduction
“[State] spending priorities and their tax systems are the result of all the budgets that have come before it. All the decisions that have been made are built into that,” said Richard Auxier, senior policy associate at the Urban Institute. “There’s a starting point that prioritizes what to spend, how to spend it, how to allocate resources.”
Funding from each source does not hold equal weight in the eyes of program coordinators, who are some of the major officials working to implement more services toward those in need. The SAMHSA grant prohibits anyone utilizing the grant from distributing naloxone to anyone besides police officers and first responders, which limits the scope of who is receiving doses of naloxone and who is receiving training.
They said having a diversity of service options “means having different services available, not just needle exchanges. So if you don’t get money for that, you’re always going to have this huge gap in services . . . There’s been a lot of fuss made about how the Biden administration is more progressive, but they’re just talking and they’re not actually freeing up the money, which is what matters.”
Dr. Thomas Huggett, a family doctor at Lawndale Christian Health Center, said that caring for patients experiencing substance use disorder has become more accessible as a result of the Affordable Care Act and the removal of the DEA waiver that was required for providers to prescribe MOUD drugs like buprenorphine, a popular drug used to help people ease feelings of cravings.
In the past 60 days, as of June 23, Lawndale Christian had seen over 400 patients for MOUD services, and Huggett says there are officially 46 providers who can now prescribe buprenorphine. They are one of many health centers, along with Cook County Health, Heartland Alliance, and others, integrating MOUD services more regularly.
Peer support and harm reduction social work, in general, have been proven to be effective in saving lives. So far, zero people have died at an overdose prevention site across the globe—the U.S. has two overdose prevention centers operating in New York City. Providence, Rhode Island is set to open one of their own next year. Meanwhile, Canada has nearly 40 safe consumption sites, as they’re also called.
“It is a medical intervention and staffed by people who are trained,” Park said. “The idea is that this is a safe and welcoming space where people who use usually just don’t have anywhere else to go.” An overdose prevention site would also open the door to legally requiring the IDHS to have a dedicated number of staff on site, a requirement that currently IDHS is less privy to, as compared to police departments and school districts.
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