7/8/2023 0 Comments Observer dispatch oneidaOn Oneida Square the intersection of homelessness, mental health issues and drug use come together in the group of people who frequently hang out there, Mayor Robert Palmieri said. “Anything that the community needs, I am willing to go above and beyond,” she said. She’s said she’s able to reach out to people with substance use disorder, mental health issues and a history of domestic abuse with understanding because of her own past, trying to give them the kind of help she once could have used. Katie Burns, another peer advocate who is in recovery, spoke about her work, which includes outreach to Oneida Square and other hard-hit areas in the county. The money from the settlements will help to employ people who can check in with people with substance use disorder to see what help they need and to help more of them turn their lives around, the kind of help he could have used in his past, he said. “Addicts are humans and we’re capable of change,” Rodriguez said. But now he meditates, he has a job, he helps people, he said. Local reactionĪ who’s who of local officials spoke during the press briefing, thanking James for her efforts to win the funding and expressing the need for action.Įric Rodriguez, a peer advocate at the Center for Family Life and Recovery who is studying to become a substance abuse counselor, talked about his past, which included heroin addiction, incarceration, gang membership and a “scary” rap sheet. More Americans fatally overdosed in 2020 than ever before, she said. The drug epidemic’s toll has gotten higher during the COVID-19 pandemic, she noted, as isolation increased and access to services decreased. It’s time, she said, for the drug companies to pay for the substance use epidemic that they started by not admitting that their painkillers are addictive. More: County overdose response team warns of spice, other non-opioid drugs laced with fentanyl More: How the Oneida County Opioid Task Force is going into the community to prevent overdoses “It’s time to turn the tide of the opioid drug crisis,” James said at the Center for Family Life and Recovery in Utica.
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