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Safe Stations conference scheduled for Oct. 25 in Nashua

By Adam Urquhart - Staff Writer | Oct 7, 2018

NASHUA – “Nashua has socially, intellectually and philosophically embraced substance misuse in the community in a way that’s far more forward thinking and ahead of what most of the rest of the country is doing,” said Jonathan Brown.

Brown is the clinic director at Harbor Homes, and echoing his thoughts, his colleague Melbourne Moran, Harbor Homes director of integrated care and population health, added that the city also is ahead of most parts of the state.

After becoming plagued with prescription pills, followed by the increase in heroin use that’s continually being intertwined with factory fentanyl, Manchester took the initiative to champion change. New Hampshire and the United States have battle opioid abuse for years, and as the situation became worse, the Queen City set up its Safe Stations program. It wasn’t long after that the initiative made its way south to Nashua in November 2016, which has now seen more than 2,200 people since its launch.

Through a private organization like Harbor Homes working with the municipality, AMR, Nashua Fire Rescue, the Mayor’s Office, Public Health & Community Services and Nashua Police progress has been made in combating the opioid epidemic.

That’s why on Oct. 25, Harbor Homes will host the Safe Stations Academy: Innovative and Integrated Response to an Opioid Crisis forum to get the word out, with the hopes that officials around the country can utilize this concept in a way that works for their community.

“We want to share how Nashua has been able to embrace this private-public relationship and leverage the frontline resources we have towards trying to help resolve the crisis that we’re in,” Brown said.

The all-day forum will feature officials from the city of Nashua, the state and the federal government, and the forum is open to anyone, not just officials and social workers. Registration begins at 7 a.m., and the conference will run until 4:15 p.m. at Sky Meadow Country Club, located at 6 Mountain Laurels Drive in Nashua. Aside from detailing how Safe Stations work and what’s next, the forum also will be covering updates on the national strategy and testimony on nontraditional interventions, and policymakers, emergency services personnel, care providers and representatives from the federal government and national thought leaders will be present to share their experiences and insights.

“This partnership between a city, a federally qualified health care center and a substance use disorder program and housing is unique and it can show just what positive effects can have on the community when people actually work together, and this is an extreme example of working together,” Moran said.

The process of going through a Safe Station is rather quick, and a client seeking help simply just rings the doorbell of any Fire Station located across the city and firefighters will then bring the client in, and their family if they are present, and take their basic vitals. At the same time, they call AMR and the Mobile Crisis Response Team and AMR will do a medical clearance to check to see if the client needs immediate acute medical care, and if they do, they will then be taken to the nearest hospital. If the client does not require that immediate medical attention, they go to the Mobile Crisis Response Team who performs a behavioral health assessment, which includes an assessment done by both a psychotherapist (social worker) and a certified recovery support worker (CSRW). Once that assessment is complete, they are able to determine what type of treatment the client would benefit from and they are transitioned over to Harbor Homes at 45 High St. for detox, intensive outpatient treatment or whatever else is needed. If the client has a co-occuring mental health or other SUD and requires mental health stabilization they can admit to the Mobile Crisis unit as well. There is multiple different avenues to connect clients that come in based upon their own specific needs.

“I think one of the overarching goals of this conference is that HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) wants to replicate this in other federally qualified healthcare centers across the country, and that’s something to be said to be identified as a program they want to roll out nationwide to communities that are somewhat fitting the mold that this service would provide,” Moran said.

Brown said they at Harbor Homes do not believe that the exact model they have is the solution for every community. As it is, there is no cookie cutter solution to steering our way out of this nationwide epidemic, and rural communities may have to tackle things differently than larger cities will.

Nonetheless, Brown said, “We believe the philosophies that both the private and public entities have embraced, the concept of the program, that’s what can be replicated across these communities.”

Harbor Homes hopes to have around 250 people or more in attendance during this forum and will be talking transparently about both their successes and failures with the program since it began its operation so that a positive impact can be made in other communities looking to embrace this concept.

“The Safe Station name, the brand, isn’t well known really outside of Manchester and Nashua,” Brown said. “So, as we’re communicating this, we’re trying to explain to people what it represents and how it might be useful to the folks that represent other communities across the country and in the Northeast.”

Safe Stations works to reduce stigmas and more readily enable people to seek care, and even those seeking care at a fire station can turn around if they are not yet ready. Participation is up to the client and some people show up and decide they want to turn around and walk out of the station, while others are more than ready to access treatment. Regardless, if the client is ready, so are many officials waiting to take that journey to recovery with them. As it is, the Nashua Department of Health and Community Services Epidemiologist Angel Lumenello did a report on the Nashua Safe Stations, where she found that, “Safe Station Nashua participants were .29 times as likely (or 71% less likely) to non-fatally overdose after entering Safe Stations compared to before entering Safe Stations and that assuming that we reach 20% of the Nashua SUD populations with Safe Stations Nashua participants were .26 as likely or (74% less likely) to fatally overdose after entering Safe Stations compared to before entering Safe Stations.”

Treatment starts when that doorbell rings at any of the fire stations across the city, and once that door opens, it does not close until the client is ready to move.

Adam Urquhart can be reached at 594-1206 or aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.

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