Opioid deaths decline in Nassau County

Training sessions and the increased use of Narcan are credited for the decline in opioid-induced deaths in Nassau County, based on state statistics and a pair of Tempo Group employees who led a training seminar at Trinity-St. John’s Episcopal Church in Hewlett on July 18.

Tempo Group, a nonprofit community-based counseling center has been helping fight addiction on Long Island through treatment and education for more than 50 years. The organization has three locations in Woodmere, Bellmore/Merrick and Syosset. The church and TruTox Laboratory sponsored the forum.

“Tempo started as more of a community-based agency doing a lot of prevention work,” said Elaine Squeri, director of health services for Tempo Group. She said that the organization was present in schools years ago, but was phased out as the institutions hired their own social workers. “But then, they began to phase us back in to send the kids that were in trouble to us. Kids that were experimenting, bringing in drug related paraphernalia and more were sent to us.”

Squeri discussed how the Narcan nasal spray works and explaining the signs of an opioid overdose such as pinpoint-shaped pupils, and blue lips and fingernails. She also addressed the different treatment approaches for opioid addiction during the two-hour presentation.

“The statistics originally were off the charts,” Squeri said. “Once we started with all the overdoses, and the public became more aware of the number, we had to start looking at how to reverse it.”

The approaches must be working as there were 193 recorded deaths from opioid overdoses in Nassau County in 2017, and that number dropped to 110, a 43 percent decline, in 2018, based on statistics released this month by the New York State Department of Health in the County Opioid Quarterly Report.

Catherine Carballeira is a licensed psychotherapist who has been working as one of the main counselors at Tempo Group for two years. “I’m a specialist in co-occurring disorders, like mental illness and substance abuse, and I wanted to work directly with substance abuse cases because 60 to 80 people who go to mental health clinics have substance abuse issues that are not addressed,” she said. “It’s like this revolving door, so I wanted to work with integrated care, which is the new buzz word for treatment.”

Tempo also uses training sessions to increase awareness and teach how to reverse an overdose using the Narcan spray that was provided to attendees at the event. “I think more people need to be encouraged to come, but Narcan certainly constitutes part of the reason why 25 percent less overdoses have occurred on Long Island in the last year,” Carballeira said.

Squeri said that stories from patients and former addicts also helps. “They need to hear it, and they can hear it more from somebody who has done what they do,” she said. “Someone who will make them say ‘OK, so I’m not so different than that guy.’”

Father Chris Ballard, who leads the parish at the 183-year-old church, thinks that forums such as these are important for individuals and the community as a whole. “I think it’s really important more or less that the community comes together and is trained together,” he said. “That’s important for us as a member of this community and we throw community around a lot, but that is what it’s really about. This seminar is just one more tool in the tool box of how we can take care of each other.”