09-15-2024 GAR - Flipbook - Page 4
4
A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Sunday, September 15, 2024
Overdose on the Rise
continued from previous page
vate businesses, health care providers, schools and colleges, behavioral
health centers … really anyone who
wants to learn about Naloxone and
obtain this life-saving medication,”
Shah says.
The website also has information
on harm reduction techniques for
those people who use drugs to prevent overdose and reduce infectious
disease transmission; how to acquire
and use fentanyl test strips that can be
used to quickly check for the presence
of fentanyl in drugs; and locations for
syringe services programs where people who use drugs can receive counseling, wound care, receive safe hypodermic needles/syringes, and be tested
for infectious diseases.
And while fentanyl and other opioids receive a great deal attention
– and rightfully so – both Shah and
Stoltzfus are quick to point out that
it is not prudent to ignore the dangers
associated with alcohol abuse.
“When many people think of alcohol abuse, they only picture the binge
drinking and wild parties at college
campuses. Yes, this is still a problem
at the collegiate level, but we are also
seeing alcohol use disorder across
the age spectrum, especially in older adults and parenting adults,” says
Shah. “During the pandemic, people
were isolated in their homes. Some
communities dealt with this isolation
by exercising more and rediscovering
nature; however, some people turned
to alcohol. With remote working,
many constraints were lessened, and
instead of an adult heading to a bar
after work where a bartender could
monitor usage and deny service at a
certain point, people were having alcohol delivered right to their front
door.”
“For our census at Helping Up Mission, alcohol is still the primary drug
of choice for 37% of the adults here.
When it’s really hot outside, the risk
for those with alcohol use disorder is
even greater,” says Stoltzfus, who adds
that for those dealing with alcohol
abuse, many are also abus-
ing other substances.
For those in need of help with drug
and alcohol use disorder, there are
resources. Shah recommends for people to call 988, noting that the number is not just for suicide prevention,
but also for those needing help with
substance abuse. “When people are
reaching out for help, there is a pretty
small window of time where they are
receptive, and 988 provides an immediate response. For most people who
reach out for help, the first program
they attempt may not be successful;
on average, it can take seven or eight
attempts to get sober, but we will not
give up on anybody,” Shah says.
Stoltzfus says that Helping Up
Mission partners with other nonprofits, churches and health care institutions to increase their outreach efforts.
“We’re always trying to be a listening, learning organization, and
we find
find that the outreach is more effective if we work with other groups
in the community to serve those in
need and to get them into treatment
and recovery as much as possible,”
Stoltzfus says. “We’ve also
started a partnership with the
University of Maryland Medical
Center. It’s designed to get people who
are coming to the emergency room
or in the hospital who don’t have an
acute medical issue but want to get
into treatment. It’s a big issue that
hospitals are facing – and at a great
cost – so this is a great partnership to
help them more effectively serve people in need.”
Stoltzfus makes the point that while
it’s easy to focus on the numbers associated with substance abuse, it’s important to remember that behind each
number is a human being.
“While the issue of opioid addiction, overdose deaths and the numbers that we’re seeing nationally are
coming into focus, we don’t talk
about the people that we’ve lost.
We don’t tell their story because
there’s such a stigma around it. We
hope that our work not only is going to reduce some of that, but also,
we will be able to tell the stories of
people that we’ve been able to help,”
he says.
