By Adam Swift
Lauren Buck, the city’s Chief of Health and Human Services, appeared before the City Council last week to provide an update on the city’s overdose outreach program in the wake of the death of Chris Alba.
Alba, who was the city’s main outreach worker and hard reduction specialist in the Substance Use Disorder and Homelessness Initiatives (SUDHI) office, died a little over two months ago.
“He’s really an irreplaceable presence in the harm reduction outreach worker community, not just for Revere, but for the state and really, the country,” said Buck.
Buck said the post-overdose outreach work is a small but important part of the SUDHI office.
“It’s a program where we receive data from first responders, (such as) Cataldo Ambulance and the Revere Police Department, and we use that data to do outreach to people who recently overdosed,” said Buck. “It’s an evidence-based approach that takes into account that somebody who has overdosed has a higher risk of overdosing again.”
Buck said the outreach team will make several attempts at different times of the day to connect with the people who overdosed either at a personal or business address.
In addition to providing information and resources, the outreach workers also provide a Narcan kit along with information about how to use Narcan and how to identify an overdose.
Prior to Alba’s death, Buck said the SUDHI department hired an additional part-time outreach worker. Still, she said there was a need to replace Alba, as well as a need for additional support for the program.
Since Alba’s death, Buck said the city has continued to do the overdose outreach work through the cooperation of the SUDHI, fire department behavioral health unit, and the public health department. Buck said the city also continues to make sure it can connect people who are either homeless or struggling with substance use to the housing programs that are available through the state.
According to state data, there were 21 opioid-related deaths in Revere in 2020, 25 in 2021, and 30 in 2022.
“According to the city’s own internal data, so this could be subject to change, as of October we had 16 opioid-related deaths and a total of 101 overdoses in the city,” said Buck.
Buck stated that this year, there was a reorganization of city government that put SUDHI under the public health department. While that has helped with administrative costs and work, Buck said there is still a need for the boots on the ground SUDHI workers for outreach and other important initiatives.
