Finding Fixes

SOLUTION: Make incarceration an opportunity to get help and start healing. Make detox easier, get people with addiction drug treatment behind bars, and connect them to help as soon as they're released.

STORY: Opioid withdrawal is like the worst flu you've ever had. Now, imagine you're responsible for dozens of people as sick as can be. What do you do?

We tour the Snohomish County jail, which has become a defacto detox center and where inmates used to die from lack of medical care. The jail turned things around, and today they're trying to make the jail a place of healing.

This season we're in Snohomish County, Washington which has an oversized share of overdose deaths in the state and is now treating the opioid epidemic like a natural disaster.

MORE INFORMATION AND RESOURCES:

Snohomish County overdose and addiction treatment resource guide. http://snohomishoverdoseprevention.com/treatment-and-support/

An article on other jails across the country that use medication-assisted treatment do it too. http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2017/08/08/sudders-med-assisted-opioid-treatment-jails

More about the Rhode Island prison system's comprehensive approach to opioid use disorder, which helped decrease the state's overdose death rate by 12 percent in one year. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304666

Research: Treating inmates' addiction behind bars can be effective in helping them continue drug treatment after they're released.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21955033

The National Institute on Drug Abuse presents evidence in support of using medication to treat inmates' opioid addiction. https://www.drugabuse.gov/treating-opioid-addiction-in-criminal-justice-settings

Research: Detroit found heroin users spent about $60 dollars a day on average on drugs. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3115458/

SOLUTION: Create teams of social workers and police officers who help homeless people with addiction get drug treatment and housing. Break the cycle of drug use, crime, and jail time by reaching out to people on the streets and in the woods, and asking them what help they need.

STORY: Marshmallows in Kevlar and a foul-mouthed social worker. Coffee dates, mac n' cheese, and body wash. The county reimagines police work and helps hundreds of people get into detox, drug treatment, and stable housing.

This season we're in Snohomish County, Washington which has an oversized share of overdose deaths in the state and is now treating the opioid epidemic like a natural disaster.

MORE INFORMATION AND RESOURCES:

Snohomish County overdose and addiction treatment resource guide.

http://snohomishoverdoseprevention.com/treatment-and-support/

SOLUTION: Get government to work more effectively. Use a disaster response playbook to organize county government around the opioid epidemic. Approach addicted people with compassion, as you'd approach a person with any other medical condition.

STORY: Addiction hits home for the top dog of a disaster-prone county. An old-school cop gets a wake-up call and learns "handcuffs and a trip to jail" just won't cut it anymore. Also, we learn what a landslide can teach us about tackling the opioid epidemic.

This season we're in Snohomish County, Washington which has an oversized share of overdose deaths in the state and is now treating the opioid epidemic like a natural disaster.

LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION AND RESOURCES:

Snohomish County overdose and addiction treatment resource guide. http://snohomishoverdoseprevention.com/treatment-and-support/

Here's what we refer to as FEMA's emergency response playbook (the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which outlines the structure of a Multi-Agency Coordination, or MAC, group) https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/148019

Download instructions on how to recognize the signs of an overdose and administer Narcan to stop it. Drawn by Julia Drachman.

SOLUTION: Get the overdose reversal drug, naloxone (aka Narcan) into the hands of everyone who needs it, and train them how to use it. Family, friends and people with addiction themselves can play a big role in stopping overdose death.

STORY: A life lost, a life saved. The main character of this episode isn't a person. It's a nasal spray. Naloxone (aka Narcan) saves lives from opioid overdoses (heroin, painkillers, fentanyl). Across the U.S., people are dying from opioids, but their deaths are preventable. We walk you through how to save a life using the overdose antidote.

LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION AND RESOURCES:

Snohomish County overdose and addiction treatment resource guide. http://snohomishoverdoseprevention.com/treatment-and-support/

Learn to administer Naloxone through an online training. http://stopoverdose.org/section/take-the-online-training/

Learn more about Naloxone and the different forms it comes in. http://harmreduction.org/issues/overdose-prevention/overview/overdose-basics/responding-to-opioid-overdose/administer-naloxone/

Research: Family members can be life savers. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dar.12551

Research: One study found 61% of drug overdoses occurred at home. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10903127.2017.1315203

SOLUTION: Treat addiction using evidence-based medication, like buprenorphine (aka Suboxone). Expand access to treatment through telemedicine.

STORY: At a clinic in Everett, Washington, a nurse pushes his patients to work hard, and the patients embark on their road to recovery. Do they have a chance? (Yes, and we'll tell you why.)

This season we're in Snohomish County, Washington which has an oversized share of overdose deaths in the state and is now treating the opioid epidemic like a natural disaster.

MORE INFORMATION AND RESOURCES:

Snohomish County overdose and addiction treatment resource guide

http://snohomishoverdoseprevention.com/treatment-and-support/

Overview of the evidence for medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorders, by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute of the University of Washington. http://adai.uw.edu/pubs/infobriefs/MAT.pdf

Research: Buprenorphine is an effective medication that can retain people in treatment.http://www.cochrane.org/CD002207/ADDICTN_buprenorphine-maintenance-versus-placebo-or-methadone-maintenance-for-opioid-dependence

Research: Patients on buprenorphine were 30 percent more likely to avoid a relapse and 50 percent more likely to stay alive than patients in drug treatment without medication. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0532

Research: Four years after starting Suboxone, over 60% of patients were not using illegal drugs. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871615001143

http://adai.uw.edu/pubs/infobriefs/MAT.pdf

Finding Fixes is the first podcast dedicated to solutions to the opioid epidemic.

Each episode we dive into one solution.

The first season we're in Snohomish County, Washington, which is treating the opioid epidemic as a state of emergency like a natural disaster.

As communities across the country struggle with rampant opioid overdoses, we seek to fill a gap:

What are people doing that works? How can my community tackle the epidemic?

We are journalists in Seattle with decades of experience, and we hope you'll join us as we explore solutions.

www.findingfixes.com