Overdose prevention centers, where people go to safely use drugs? This may be the turning point in practical rehabilitation by first preventing deaths. Mind you first that the estimated weekly drug overdose numbers in the US are nearly 2,000 people a week.... think about this...285 people died today of drug overdose. Today. What we are doing is not working. So why not overdose prevention centers?
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I understand the controversy in opening overdose prevention centers in terms of "enabling." But the reality is, abstinence only doesn't work for many (and it may be nearly impossible without gradual - years long reductionist steps with some drugs - the ones most quickly killing folks. Inpatient treatment centers cannot keep patients long enough and recidivism is very high - with low long-term success rates.
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Across so many different data sets and populations, when people are supported in "healthier options," when care is comprehensive in multi/interdisciplinary teams, when substance use interventions are not specialty limited/targeted, when insurance does not limit services (this happens in part because insurance simply cannot cover all that is needed in drug addiction cases), when patients are able to find life satisfaction (via the life satisfaction model), and when basic needs including food, clothing, housing, water and electricity are not in the day to day crises' of dependent people - users leave drugs and thrive.
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I hope you will read the entire article here regarding overdose prevention centers ... and then after you've read the full article, give the last paragraph a minute or two to resonate. A drugs only, people only, abstinence only, specialists only approach ... none of these are the "only anything" in finding a practical solution to the people who are dying if an overdose right now, as I write.
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The final paragraph of this article adds things that patients will better hear when they are no longer neglected, punished, shamed, looked down upon and morally "held accountable for their 'choice' ... and when users learn that they can be free to live (and not die) they can begin to walk. In this story, the heart of the matter is not only overdose prevention. It is the full bio-psycho-social provision included as an 'ancillary service' in the OPC approach that is the magic. Oddly, allowing safe use, opens minds to seeing a way to live - paradoxically in OPCs where 100% of overdoses are stopped before death. From here, lives, from the bottom up, can move to living, as more valuable than buzzing away.
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Thank you Yahoo News, for giving this story the full report!
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