LYNN — The Lynn Police Department Behavioral Health Unit and Healthy Streets program will once again participate in a comprehensive police-sponsored recovery effort.
The “Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI) One2One: Engagement to Recovery Initiative” empowers police departments and community partners to distribute fentanyl test strip (FTS) kits to those in need, as well as provide referrals to treatment and information about other resources available to those who use drugs and their loved ones.
The intervention project, spread across Massachusetts and Maine, seeks to increase engagement in substance use-related services among people using stimulants and opioids, and who are at risk of fatal overdose. The initiative is the result of a partnership between PAARI and Brandeis University.
The Lynn Police Department has again joined departments from Maine and Massachusetts.
“The return of this program is a great boost to our efforts to reach out to those who are at greatest risk of overdosing and quite possibly fatally overdosing,” said Interim Police Chief Lenny Desmarais. “Having Healthy Streets as our partner makes the whole effort that much more effective.”
Last year, 48 people died in Lynn from overdoses involving opioids and synthetic opioids, according to police statistics. Nearly half of all drug overdose deaths in the U.S are associated with illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which is now used alone and found in heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and counterfeit opioid pills.
Lynn is particularly hard-hit by illicit fentanyl, which is highly potent and thus prone to cause accidental overdose. Research has shown that FTS is a feasible, useful tool linked to increased self-efficacy and important safety and drug use behavior changes. Through the One2One program, PARRI will provide training for departments and community partners on how to distribute the FTS kits as well as the kits themselves. PARRI will also provide training on how to offer referrals, share information about relevant services, and provide other selected tools to kit recipients.
The PAARI is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help law enforcement agencies nationwide create non-arrest pathways to treatment and recovery.