Holly Fitting, vice president of addiction, recovery, residential services and grants administration at The Providence Center’s Anchor Recovery Community Center, was part of a recent team effort to equip Block Island with opioid overdose rescue medicine and training.
Fitting, along with a team of certified peer recovery specialists from Anchor Mobile Outreach Recovery Efforts, distributed Naloxboxes, which contain naloxone, to Ballard’s Beach Resort and the New Shoreham Island Free Library. The group also left two dozen naloxone kits on the island.
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Fitting discusses the trip and Rhode Island’s 10,000 Chances Project, a statewide effort to reduce opioid overdose deaths.
PBN: What was the response on Block Island to the delivery of overdose rescue kits and the opioid overdose prevention and rescue training?
FITTING: The businesses we visited were both excited and grateful to receive the Naloxbox and nasal Narcan. They indicated to us that the boxes would be placed in an accessible location. Furthermore, they expressed communicating to other businesses the availability of Narcan in the area and inside their businesses. Discussions centered around the need for more recovery supports and harm reduction, not only during the extremely busy tourist months but also for residents suffering from substance use disorder.
PBN: How many Naloxboxes and kits has Anchor Mobile Outreach Recovery Efforts distributed so far, and how many more do you plan to place in Rhode Island communities?
FITTING: The Anchor MORE team has distributed 10 Naloxboxes since March of 2021. Since January of 2021, we have distributed 4,040 doses of Narcan to Rhode Island communities. Since Aug. 31, 2020, we have distributed close to 400 doses of Narcan, both nasal and intramuscular, to the residents and businesses of Block Island. We placed Naloxboxes at the New Shoreham Island Free Library, Block Island Medical Center and Ballard’s Beach Resort.
In addition to Block Island, we have distributed Naloxboxes to Gel’s Kitchen in West Warwick, the Love and Compassion Center in Pawtucket, Crossroads Family Shelter and Crossroads Domestic Violence Shelter in Providence, Harrington Hall in Cranston, Family Literacy Center in Manville [in the town of Lincoln] and the Electricians’ Union in Cranston.
In the last six months of 2021, we plan to purchase and distribute 10 additional Naloxboxes to Rhode Island businesses, including the hospitality industry, as well as community behavioral health agencies.
PBN: Could you explain how Anchor Recovery Community Center is partnering with the state’s 10,000 Chances Project on this effort?
FITTING: In addition to the 2,000 nasal Narcan doses we received from the 10,000 Chances Project, we utilized funding to purchase five Naloxboxes from RIDMAT [Rhode Island Disaster Medical Assistance Team]. We utilize volunteers at Anchor Recovery to build the naloxone rescue kits that contain the intramuscular naloxone. Funding was used to also purchase the supplies needed to build these kits.
PBN: How much funding has Anchor Recovery Community Center received from the R.I. Department of Health’s Drug Overdose Prevention program for Naloxbox distribution and training?
FITTING: To date, Anchor Recovery has received $5,000 from the 10,000 Chances Grant distributed by the Rhode Island Department of Health. We are currently providing Narcan to the Department of Corrections [in] Cranston as part of the RIDOH funding and anticipate further funding for this project through RIDOH.
PBN: Have you gotten any feedback from communities or residents who were able to use one of the Naloxboxes or naloxone kits to help someone?
FITTING: An individual informed Anchor Recovery that they utilized a kit supplied to them by Anchor to reverse an overdose while they were at work in a high-risk industry.
On three separate occasions, Providence Place mall security let us know that they utilized our distributed Narcan to reverse three separate overdoses.
We consistently hand out Narcan at the Motel 6 in Warwick and Kennedy Plaza, both of which reported saving a life.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.
