(From The Detroit News)

Detroit — Detroit is launching a new, first-of-its-kind quick response team that will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to follow up with suspected opioid overdose survivors after they receive treatment from the Detroit Fire Department.

The team, which was announced during a press conference Friday and will hit the streets Monday, will be operated by Face Addition Now, a Clinton Township-based nonprofit, and equipped with harm-reduction strategies and supplies that help keep people who use drugs alive and as healthy as possible. They can also connect overdose survivors to substance use disorder treatment, housing services, food and clothing assistance, and employment assistance if the survivors are willing.

"We welcome this QRT initiative because it ensures that someone who overdoses doesn't just go to the emergency center, they actually get the treatment they need," Chief Public Health Officer Denise Fair Razo said. "They get the referrals to the wraparound services, and that's what we need for our community."

Starting Monday, each suspected opioid overdose that the fire department responds to will activate the quick response team. If the person refuses transport to a hospital, the team will respond to the location where emergency medical services were provided within three hours. If the person is taken to a hospital the team will follow-up at their home in two to four days, officials said.

Other Detroit community partners such as homelessness outreach teams funded by the Housing and Revitalization Department can also refer residents to the quick response team.

"Getting more resources to people actually where we find them out in the community, out in their homes, out in all the areas, is the key to helping people," Robert Dunn, the city’s medical director, said.

The opioid crisis began with prescriptions in the 1990s and between 2000 and 2021 the number of annual opioid overdose deaths in Michigan skyrocketed from 183 to 2,809, according to the state. Opioids are a class of substances that act on specific brain receptors and can include prescription drugs as well as illicit substances such as heroin and fentanyl.

Substance use disorder is a chronic, but treatable disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Linda Davis, Director of FAN and former 41B District Court Judge, said addiction needs to be treated as a disease as opposed to a moral failing.

"It's the only disease in our country that we do one-and-done programming, and we need to do better as a community," Davis said.

Detroit is disproportionately impacted by the opioid epidemic and overdoses killed 430 in the city in 2023, officials said. Detroit Fire Department staff is on the frontlines of the epidemic and used naloxone, a Food and Drug Administration-approved medication that reverses overdoses, 2,400 times in the last year.

Fire department first responders will stabilize a patient upon responding to a potential overdose, inform them of the services available, and complete a patient care report, Detroit Fire Department Commissioner Chuck Simms said. This will automatically generate a referral to the quick response team.

"Any time we can provide an additional service to the citizens or the visitors of Detroit is always a great thing," Simms said.

Michigan's state and local governments are set to receive nearly $800 million in settlement funds from lawsuits brought against distributors, manufacturers, and prescribers in the opioid system. The money will be distributed over roughly two decades.

Detroit will receive $48 million in total, some of which is already being used to fund the Quick Response Team. The city's $1.7 million contract with FAN will last for two years, officials said.

FAN already operates 17 quick-response teams across Michigan, including in Oakland and Macomb counties. The Detroit team will be its first to operate 24 hours a day, every day of the week.

"What's going to make it a lot different, is the wraparound services to get them the after-care treatment, to get them the intervention that will ultimately break the bond and free them from the addiction," Deputy Mayor Todd Bettison said. "It (the opioid epidemic) affects everyone. It's an equal opportunity destroyer of lives. This right here today is going to help the most vulnerable."

Meet the team

Detroit's quick response team will consist of 12 people, rotating through three eight-hour shifts, seven days a week, Project Manager Thomas Hunter said. The team has people from a variety of backgrounds, including peer recovery coaches, social workers, and community health workers.

Many members of the team use their lived experiences with the opioid epidemic to help others. Hunter said he is in long-term recovery and has previously experienced homelessness in Detroit.

"I know the pain and despair that comes with addiction, and I also know, with the bright people in your corner and the compassion and removing stigma, how it can help somebody transform their lives," Hunter said. "My team and I will work diligently to find these people and meet them right where they're at and try to assist and help them and make their life as safe as possible until the opportunity comes to where they're ready to make the change."

Change is difficult for people who suffer from substance use disorder, Hunter said. Just sending people in and out of treatment, without additional services, usually doesn't work, said Tamesha Little, a peer recovery coach mentor with FAN who will also be working with the quick response team.

"When you meet a person right where they're at, eventually they will tell you, 'I'm ready to get into treatment. I need help,'" said Little, who is also in long-term recovery for substance abuse disorder, which started when she was prescribed opioids. "You have to let that person make the determination, you can't make the determination for that person."

Little said the team is there to deliver a message of hope, not judgment.

"A person don't really remember what you do for them is how you made them feel," Little said. "Everyone deserves a second, third, fourth, fifth chance, because, I had many of them when someone gave me a chance."

Harm reduction specialist Hope Williams, 44, said the team's work is unique because they will not be accompanied by law enforcement.

"We're going to be a little bit different, we're not going out with the police," Williams said. "We're all just excited to see what this actually looks like."

Meeting people where they are is key, said Detroiter and team member Shandra Dunn, 51.

"We don't pressure into recovery, we meet them where they are," Dunn said. "It makes a difference when you know you got support."