Anchor Recovery Community Center distributes hundreds of naloxone kits

PROVIDENCE – Thanks to a $5,000 grant from Rhode Island’s 10,000 Chances Project, Anchor Recovery Community Center’s Mobile Outreach Recovery Efforts team has distributed nearly 500 naloxone kits since receiving them in January.

The effort is helping to push the 10,000 Chances Project – which stems from the Rescue Workgroup of the Governor’s Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force – further toward its goal of distributing 10,000 naloxone kits throughout the Ocean State.

Naloxone is a drug that reverses opioid overdoses.

To date, Anchor’s five MORE team members have distributed all but about 30 of the kits, and more kits are expected to arrive soon from the R.I. Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals.

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Future distribution plans include providing kits to people who request them, making sure that businesses and groups located in areas hard-hit by substance abuse have naloxone kits on hand and reaching out directly to people on the street in “overdose hot spots,” Anchor says.

The MORE team is made up of peer recovery specialists who go out into communities and find and connect with people who are struggling with addiction.

Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.