A crisis with no crowds — A nurse addresses the opioid tragedy
Written by Amy Raley
After a life-threatening disaster — the aftermath of a tornado or similar crisis — it’s common to see crowds of community members unite to help victims recover and rebuild.
Such efforts are not as apparent for the opioid crisis, which is much bigger, broader and deadlier. More than 67,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of that number, 70% were due to opioids, either prescribed or illicit. But the opioid crisis hasn’t inspired an outpouring of support from motivated citizens and neighbors. The stigma of addiction has stood in the way.
Crisis at home
Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Purdue’s home county, is coping with the opioid crisis along with the rest of the nation. The county’s drug overdose deaths stood at 42 in 2018, the most recent year for which data is available. Of those, 34 were opioid-related. And for every person who didn’t survive, there are others who are battling an addiction.
Since 2018, Nicole Adams, clinical assistant professor of nursing, has been involved in the county’s efforts to address the opioid epidemic. She joined what was then called the Tippecanoe County Opioid Task Force, now called the Recovery and Resilience Network.
“I got interested from a policy perspective,” Adams says. “A lot of what we see with the opioid issue is related to policy.”
Not long after joining the network’s subcommittee on law enforcement, Adams says she learned that standard police crisis-intervention training (CIT) had an opioid gap: “They said they had this great training, but needed something like it for opioids because they didn’t know what they were doing when we encounter someone who is either using or withdrawing, or having some other opioid-related issue.”
Strategy for those on the front lines
Adams tasked herself with addressing the need. The result is a web-based, five-module video training course that police and other first responders can take independently online.
The modules explain the physical and psychological symptoms of opioid withdrawal and detoxification, and the drugs used to save an overdose victim or help prevent substance use relapses. They also cover various helpful opioid-related resources in Tippecanoe County that work together to help people recover — how to access them and how to help people in need of them access them. Each interactive module has quiz questions every few minutes that must be answered to continue with the video. After attendees view all five modules, they can take a final quiz and receive credit for the training from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA).
Jason Huber, executive director of Tippecanoe County Community Corrections, says the videos play an important role in a large, gradual shift in law enforcement thinking. Officers, he says, are shifting away from a traditional police culture that assumed overdose victims are strictly illegal drug users in need of punishment.
Shifting attitudes, approaches
“There is a very slow mind shift in truly understanding that there is a substance abuse and mental health component to 85 to 90% of calls law enforcement deal with; and there’s a big emphasis on that right now,” Huber says. “These training videos are a good start to that, and other programs emphasize that. I think you’ll see the next generation of law enforcement officers and even the courts have a better grasp of the idea that mental health and substance abuse are key factors, and while you have to hold people accountable for their actions, there’s also an opportunity to get people help and treatment.”
Huber and Adams have joined with others in coordinating services that previously had been siloed, and in connecting those services with people with opioid use disorder who need them.
“Counseling services and mental health providers are sharing information,” Adams says. “They’re sitting at the same table together and sharing in patient treatment. They are really doing what’s needed for the community to have success and for people in the community to be successful.”
