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ACR Health Coordinator Urges Public to Stop Stigmatizing Drug Use, Educate Themselves ACR Health coordinator urges public to look past the stigma of drug use

By Jake Graziano

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© 2019 Jake Graziano

Inside the offices of A-C-R health Kevin Donovan explains fighting addiction is much more than a day job.

“The rewarding part about my job is the lives that we know that we’re saving.” But that’s not always easy.

“We lose about a hundred people every year to an opioid overdose in this county.” One method of prevention is their syringe exchange program.

“It’s basically a harm-reduction initiative meaning it’s not treatment but we’re understanding the reality that there are people out there who are injecting drugs and we want to keep those people as safe as possible, we want to keep them alive.” And the results have been drastic.

“So in New York State we can tell you that in 1992 52% of all injection drug users were HIV positive and we’ve gotten that number down to below 3 percent as of 2016.” While it’s obvious Donovan cares about what he does…

“The difficult thing for me is not being able to help everybody.” it might not be as clear why he does it.

“Yes so I’m recovering injection drug user I spent the better part of the last 15 years in recovery there’s some bumps in the road.” And he’s been through it all.

“I have buried very close friends. I carry people around who I’ve lost and I want to be able to help anybody who’s looking for help.” As for what he says to people struggling today.

“I’d say there’s hope, I made it out. And I was able to get help, get treatment and I’m looking at long-term sustained recovery now and able to use my experiences to help other people.” One of the other main services the program offers…

“It’s a pretty fully operational van. People know that they come in there and they go right inside the van there’s privacy.”

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday ACR health sends out this van to Syracuse’s economically depressed Westside. An area especially known for high drug usage. On the van they provide clean syringes and other services to promote healthy drug use.

Belinda Felder runs the van and some of what she’s seen is unimaginable.

“When I first started this program we was losing people, I dealt with grief and death so much that I’ve explained to my mother that it was starting to be numb to me. I get emotional because I’ve seen young kids die, I have seen parents looking for their children.” But it’s the good that sticks with Felder the most.

“I have plenty of success stories. I believe that’s what’s kept me here the longest.”

“This is my heart right here, is my compassion, it feeds my soul it’s like if I could help somebody… I wake up every day and I
know I’m wanted here, I know I’m needed here.”

Jake Graziano N-C-C news

At ACR Health in Syracuse, people like Kevin Donovan work to educate the public about drug use and the measures they can take to stay safe. He stressed four ideas that he believes will limit the amount of drug addiction and overdoses. First, Donovan talked about the issues that the social stigma of drug addiction can cause for addicts.

“I think stigma is the biggest hurdle we face in treating this disease,” Donovan said. “If I internalize that I’m not a good person because that’s what I’ve been told, it makes it almost impossible to treat the disease.”

Donovan said that people should be more understanding and accepting of people suffering from the disease rather than judging them, and that many people never seek treatment because of these societal pressures and stigmatization.

In addition, Donovan continually spoke about the importance of narcan for opioid users. Opioids have become a nationwide crisis, and roughly 100 people die in Onondaga County each year from opioid overdose. One way to cut down on those overdoses is by using Narcan, which essentially keeps someone who overdosed on an opioid alive for 30-90 minutes until they can get medical treatment.

“Without Narcan, 10 percent of our population would be dying,” Donovan said. “People don’t realize how bad this truly is. We want everyone in the general public to be carrying it, if possible, because it has saved countless lives.”

The drug works by reversing the effects of the opioid in the person’s system for that small window of time, which allows them to regain breathing.

Donovan also believes that furthering education for school-aged children will greatly reduce drug use. He finds that too many people try to avoid the subject of drugs with their children, which ultimately does more bad than good.

“We have to develop an educational program at a prevention level for young kids,” Donovan said. “And just be able to have honest conversations that these are the people in your family, these are your friends, that get caught up in addiction. It can happen to anyone.”

Donovan is currently working with some of his colleagues on developing a drug-prevention approach for kids.

In the future, Donovan said he’d like to see safe injection facilities become legalized in New York. The facilities, which are controversial, are legalized in Canada and Australia and have dropped the overdose death rate, much like syringe exchange programs in the United States.

The controversy comes from the belief of some people that these facilities are encouraging drug usage, but Donovan said the benefits come from providing safe needles and rather encouraging healthy habits for users. As of now, safe injection facilities are illegal across the United States.

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