Thomas Breen photo
Mayor Elicker (at podium) and regional health leaders on Tuesday.
Roughly $10 million in federal aid will flow to the New Haven area over the next five years to help municipal health departments take a regional approach in combating the opioid epidemic through the hiring of 10 case-management “navigators” and the cross-town sharing of overdose data.
This aid comes as the number of overdose deaths in 2022 reached 490 in New Haven county, including 128 in the city itself.
Two dozen city, state, and federal officials joined with local healthcare providers on Tuesday afternoon at the corner of Grand and Blatchley Avenues to celebrate that federal grant award. The press conference took place outside of Hancock Pharmacy at 306 Grand Ave., and in front of a recently unveiled community health-focused sunflower mural designed by local painter Kwadwo Adae.
The money itself comes in the form of an Overdose Data to Action: Limiting Overdose through Collaborative Actions in Localities (OD2A: LOCAL) grant, from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
City Health Director Maritza Bond (right).
Mayor Justin Elicker, city Health Director Maritza Bond, and U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, among others, said that that New Haven area health departments will receive $2.1 million this year and roughly $2 million for each of the next four years, for a total of around $10 million over the next half decade.
That money will go to municipal health departments in New Haven, Waterbury, and Milford, as well as the East Shore, Naugatuck Valley, and Quinnipiack Valley Health Districts and the Yale School of Public Health.
Elicker and Bond said that this money will go towards hiring a total of 10 case management specialists, also known as “navigators,” across the region, including three in New Haven. These on-the-ground overdose-prevention workers will, for example, walk up and down Grand Avenue, work with local healthcare providers like Fair Haven Community Health Care, and talk directly with people struggling with opioid addiction about what they need and how to get them on the road to evidence-based recovery.
Yale School of Public Health's Robert Heimer.
U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal (below).
As Yale School of Public Health Professor of Epidemiology Robert Heimer put it on Tuesday, these navigators will work with those in need to address not just the top-line issue of substance use disorder — but also all the calamitous fallout from such struggles, including “homelessness, poverty, and family estrangement.”
This newly awarded federal aid will also go towards the hiring of an epidemiologist who will focus on tracking overdoses and analyzing and sharing such data with the relevant regional health districts to try to bolster a collaborative approach to tackling this issue.
“It is a disease, not a moral failing,” Blumenthal said about opioid addiction, as he underscored just how dangerous and commonplace drugs like fentanyl and xylazine have become in fueling the ongoing epidemic of overdose deaths. “If you think your community or your family is immune, you’re in denial. If you think this issue is limited to Fair Haven, or New Haven, you are in denial.”
“Seek help if you are ready to seek help,” Bond implored members of the public who may be listening to or reading about this press conference. She urged those struggling with substance use disorder to call the state’s 24/7 treatment line 1 – 800-563‑4086, and to know that Connecticut has a Good Samaritan law encouraging those at a medical emergency to provide help.
Hancock Pharmacy's Lalith Pasupuleti and Sudheer Kotnala.
Fair Haven Community Health Care's Suzanne Lagarde, Eddy Cordova-Coello, and Dabely Cruz-Jose.
While New Haven is still looking to hire overdose-prevention “navigators” under this newly awarded grant, Fair Haven Community Health Care already has two such workers on staff: Eddy Cordova-Coello, a Latino outreach worker at the health center, and Dabely Cruz-Jose, an addiction medicine care coordinator.
Cordova-Coello said he spends most work days walking up and down Grand Avenue, talking with those struggling with substance use disorders, particularly those who are Latino; building trust; encouraging them to come to the health care center for a suite of services. Cruz-Jose said that detox is one of the most frequent care interventions she finds herself directing patients to through this outreach program.
Despite the challenging situations he sees people on Grand Avenue going through on a daily basis, Cordova-Coello said, he’s also struck by just how kind and neighborly and engaging and full of live people in the neighborhood are. He said he’s lived in the New Haven area for 20 years. “Fair Haven is the happiest” area he’s been in.
No mention of Overdose Prevention Sites or gasp Safe Supply. While our community members die we just add more cogs in the machine of the nonprofit industrial complex.