S2 EP8 Needle exchanges and harm reduction
Finding Fixes
This episode, we look at the idea of harm reduction and focus specifically on needle exchanges. Those are hundreds of places across the US that hand out clean equipment, the overdose reversal medicine Narcan ,and other help to people addicted to heroin and other drugs.
info_outline
S2 EP7 Helping family members of people with addiction
Finding Fixes
Addiction is a family disease and family members of people with addiction need help, too. We look at an approach that is more effective than an intervention or Al-anon.
info_outline
S2 EP6 Treating addiction from the ER
Finding Fixes
Emergency rooms are the last safety net for the sickest, most marginalized people. On this episode we hear how emergency rooms can become the gateway for people with addiction to access evidence-based drug treatment and other help they may need. And how an accident with a broken hypodermic needle in her neck led to one woman's recovery from heroin.
info_outline
S2 EP5 Treating the wounds of trauma
Finding Fixes
Trauma and pain and addiction are tightly woven together. But, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is treatable and treating the wounds of trauma can help treat pain and addiction, too. We must pay attention to the toxic effects of trauma if we really want to help people stay away from drugs and feel better from chronic pain.
info_outline
S2 EP4 Medical Marijuana for Chronic Pain
Finding Fixes
Medical marijuana is now legal in dozens of states. Some chronic pain patients now rely on it in place of opioid painkillers. But, in the absence of formal medical guidance, many patients are going it on their own, with informal guidance from their peers. Some experts are not convinced though. They caution against potentially harmful side effects.
info_outline
S2 EP3 Treating Chronic Pain
Finding Fixes
What's the appropriate role of opioids in treating chronic pain?
info_outline
S2 EP2 Treating Acute Pain
Finding Fixes
The more opioids you get after surgery, the more likely you are to be dependent on them down the road. We follow a mother through her c-section to see how she deals with the pain after her daughter is born and avoids opioid painkillers.
info_outline
S2 EP1 Preventing Youth Addiction
Finding Fixes
The best ways to prevent young people from getting addicted aren't what you think. Also, we find out how a rural community is making a dent in youth drug and alcohol use.
info_outline
BONUS: Why are we making this podcast?
Finding Fixes
Our team is hard at work on Season Two, which drops fall 2019, but in the meantime we wanted to answer a question a lot of people ask us: Why are we making this podcast? Why make a podcast about solutions to the opioid epidemic?
info_outline
BONUS: How Shannon got off drugs
Finding Fixes
For Shannon McCarty, two things were crucial in her recovery: connections and timing. It started with timing – a key encounter just when she wanted to get off the drugs. And then it was the connections that kept her going. A police officer she could depend on. A sister who stayed in touch. A dog who gets her out of the house a few times a day. Shannon’s story helps us understand how solutions to the opioid epidemic can be incredibly personal.
info_outlineSOLUTION: Make incarceration an opportunity to get help and start healing. Make detox easier, get people with addiction drug treatment behind bars, and connect them to help as soon as they’re released.
STORY: Opioid withdrawal is like the worst flu you’ve ever had. Now, imagine you’re responsible for dozens of people as sick as can be. What do you do?
We tour the Snohomish County jail, which has become a defacto detox center and where inmates used to die from lack of medical care. The jail turned things around, and today they’re trying to make the jail a place of healing.
This season we’re in Snohomish County, Washington which has an oversized share of overdose deaths in the state and is now treating the opioid epidemic like a natural disaster.
MORE INFORMATION AND RESOURCES:
Snohomish County overdose and addiction treatment resource guide. http://snohomishoverdoseprevention.com/treatment-and-support/
An article on other jails across the country that use medication-assisted treatment do it too. http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2017/08/08/sudders-med-assisted-opioid-treatment-jails
More about the Rhode Island prison system’s comprehensive approach to opioid use disorder, which helped decrease the state’s overdose death rate by 12 percent in one year. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304666
Research: Treating inmates’ addiction behind bars can be effective in helping them continue drug treatment after they’re released.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21955033
The National Institute on Drug Abuse presents evidence in support of using medication to treat inmates’ opioid addiction. https://www.drugabuse.gov/treating-opioid-addiction-in-criminal-justice-settings
Research: Detroit found heroin users spent about $60 dollars a day on average on drugs. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3115458/