NORTHAMPTON — For employees working in the local service industry, the visible signs of an opioid overdose epidemic often take place at their workplaces: customers nodding off in the bathroom or employees finding used syringes in the trash.
That was the perspective of several local workers who came together on Tuesday for a training on the use of the life-saving overdose medicine naloxone — often known by the brand name Narcan — as well as how to properly pick up and dispose of sharp objects like syringes.
“Every sector of the community has a role to play in this,” said Cherry Sullivan, the program coordinator for Hampshire HOPE, which put on the training with the community-based health care organization Tapestry. “We want (local workers) to feel supported, we want to know what they need and we want to hear their ideas… they are the people forming relationships and those relationships matter.”
The number of overdose deaths continues to soar across the country, as it has at least since 2000. Now, synthetic opioids — like illegally made fentanyl — are contributing to that spike, with an increase from 22,598 overdose deaths in 2015 to 32,445 in 2016, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Locally, Sullivan said Hampshire County has seen a rise in both fatal and non-fatal overdoses, and her organization is working to build a database that could provide more accurate data on those overdoses. But already this year, for example, Belchertown has seen eight fatal overdoses, she added.
Present at Tuesday’s training at Smithsonian Cafe and Chowderhouse were employees from Burger King, Haymarket Cafe and Starbucks.
“We have people come in all the time who are potential, current or former users,” Haymarket worker Mariha Griffin told the Gazette. “Having Narcan there is really helpful.”
“It’s good knowledge to have,” Griffin’s coworker Sonia Perez added.
The day’s presentations began with Northampton police officer Adam Van Buskirk, who is part of the city’s Drug Addiction Response Team, or DART.
“Basically what our DART team does is we respond to overdoses, we go and speak with people who may have committed a crime fueled by their drug addiction,” he said.
The team helps opioid users get important information like how to sign up for MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, or how to get into local recovery programs. Or, they discuss safe using strategies if the person isn’t ready to go into recovery, Van Buskirk said.
“That’s what the team has been focused on, meeting people where they’re at,” Van Buskirk said. “We’re out on the street on a daily basis, we see these people regularly.”
Van Buskirk described how to recognize the square, wax packaging often seen with heroin, and how to dispose of that.
Local workers and one community member had specific questions for Sullivan and Liz Wynott of Tapestry, who oversees that organization’s needle access and disposal program. One topic of conversation was how long to wait before knocking on the bathroom door if someone is suspected of using opioids, or potentially overdosing, in there.
“It’s difficult to tell how long is appropriate to wait,” Griffin said, adding that their general rule is around 10 minutes.
Starbucks barista Pat Leyden said his store doesn’t have any set time protocol, but can sense possible behavioral changes in customers, many of whom frequent the business.
“We do have relationships with people,” Leyden said.
Eliseth Martin, the general manager at the Burger King on King Street, said at her business the big issue is finding used syringes in the parking lot or trash.
“We’re very careful when we pull the trash out,” she said.
Wynott provided the workers with information on the history and public-health benefits of needle access programs, the increased danger from the rise of synthetic opioids, how to recognize and respond to an overdose, how Narcan actually works and how to administer it.
Steps employees should take are calling 911, giving a potential overdose victim rescue breaths, administering naloxone, placing the victim in a recovery position and staying with the individual.
Wynott listed the symptoms of an overdose, and told the participants that naloxone should only be given if someone is unconscious and not responding.
“How much response is enough response?” Griffin asked. “If they’re talking to you, don’t give it,” Wynott responded, adding that someone should stay with the person to monitor their behavior.
Using opioids alone is more dangerous when it comes to overdoses, and as a harm-reduction strategy Wynott said her group advises people that if they’re going to use, they should use with someone else.
“It’s that isolation that plays a bit part in deaths,” Wynott said. She said that there have been some 2,000 reports of overdose reversals since her group started training people to use naloxone.
Also part of Wynott’s presentation was a demonstration on how to safely dispose of sharp objects like syringes. Tapestry has been running a syringe access program in the city since 1995 — the first such program west of Boston, Wynott said.
From a harm reduction perspective, access programs and needle exchanges have reduced incidents of HIV and Hepatitis C in communities that have them, she said.
“I’ve been very impressed by Northampton’s reaction, their response to this overdose epidemic that is happening,” Wynott said.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.