I reached out to Tom Lopez, head of the Newton Firefighters Association, today to ask about the union’s issues with carrying and administering Narcan. In addition to explaining why the change isn’t as simple as the public might believe, Tom told me that the
“Firefighters completed and signed an agreement with the city today that addresses most of our concerns and can only hope the rest is addressed quickly.”
The parties did not sign a new contract. According to Lopez, it’s a side agreement. The language will be added to the new contract when an agreement is reached.
His entire email follows:
“The Narcan issue is a lot more complex than what some people would make you believe. Its not as simple as just a little training and putting it on the trucks. Narcan is a small band aid on a huge laceration in society and people feel that simply having firefighters carry Narcan will solve the problem and thats just not reality. Even with Narcan people will continue to die unless the community develops and implements a broad spectrum program that can identify people at risk, provide treatment options for addicts, and continued support for the patient and their families long after treatment. This is imperative for the addict to have any chance of long term recovery.
The community program is the most important piece of the puzzle and is something of great concern to the firefighters. We do not believe the city has such a plan or resources in place to date . We have expressed our concerns to the administration, members of the board/counsel, and even the media in recent months, but no one seems to be listening. Instead they have focused on the lack of Narcan on the trucks and have gone as far as maligning the firefighters rather than listen to our concerns. It was easier for some to jump to conclusions and say it was about money.I can assure you it had nothing to do with money!!Gail, as I said in the beginning this issue is far more complex than people would lead you to believe and I feel we had stated our facts and concerns in the Tab article pretty clearly.The Firefighters completed and signed an agreement with the city today that addresses most of our concerns and can only hope the rest is addressed quickly. The timing of deployment is up to the department.”
Well this certainly sounds encouraging, although it’s a little vague. Particularly this sentence…
So does that mean it’s resolved? Or Tom hopes it’s resolved?
And what about our police?
It would be great if someone from the city could add some clarity.
These guys are awesome. They are using their bargaining power to improve the safety of the citizens. Awesome.
If the addict dies of an overdose, they will not be able to get treatment! It may be a bit more than a bandaid, it’s critical to survival in some cases.
Of course the issue is bigger and more complex than simply having firefighters (or police or anyone) carry Narcan. But this is a clear situation in which we can’t let the perfect get in the way of the good. I applaud the Fire Dept. for keeping the need for a community-wide response at the forefront of the discussion. But even in the absence of that bigger response, we need to at least try to keep these people alive, give them another chance to get clean, and give their families more time with them.
He should have kept his mouth shut.
“The Narcan issue is a lot more complex than what some people would make you believe. Its not as simple as just a little training and putting it on the trucks. Narcan is a small band aid on a huge laceration in society and people feel that simply having firefighters carry Narcan will solve the problem and thats just not reality.”
Duh. And so is heart disease. But we have defibrillators everywhere. Carry Narcan and save lives. The societal response to the more complex problem will continue.
I’m thrilled to hear that after a few YEARS of discussion the city may finally implement this relatively simple step.
I am perplexed about what possibly could have tied this up for so long and how this ever came a matter between the unions and the city
I agree with Terry. That statement was infuriating. Nobody has said “Narcan will solve all problems related to opioid use”. To imply that is just misleading.
There’s clearly a story about how come it has taken years to take this simple step but so far no one seems to be willing to tell it.
“Its not as simple as just a little training and putting it on the trucks.” Thank you, Tom Lopez.
How many people who’ve posted about Narcan know anything at all about it other than what they’ve read in the media? Yet these same people expect our first responders to receive as little as 15 minutes of training to administer a drug to an individual who may – or may not – be suffering from an overdose. Does the 15 minutes of training include perhaps 5 minutes of training for how to determine when a person has overdosed? Or no training at all? Does anyone here care?
My complaint is not about the use of Narcan; it’s about the inappropriate use of public pressure to force other people to take an action without full knowledge of its implications.
As the expression goes, this is not my first rodeo watching (or being part of) a group of municipal/school based professionals being pressured to take an action they don’t feel prepared/fully trained for. Far from it. I urge you to listen to the first responders. If they say they haven’t had sufficient training, then that should mean something to you. Once the first responders are well trained, I feel confident Newton will have the best outcomes of any city around.
Ten years ago, all teachers were forced to take a 45 minute training in restraint. There were no guidelines for when a child should be restrained, and as a result many children were restrained unnecessarily without their parents’ knowledge. Teachers fought against the policy and were told to “just do it”. Sound familiar? It was awful to watch. The new policy anyone who restrains a child needs to have 12 hours of training. 45 minutes vs 12 hours – the difference between inadequate training and adequate training.
When it comes to health and safety issues, you do it right. I want to know that our first responders have adequate training.
I’m going to keep repeating my position which is that I have no interest in assigning blame here: I only want to do what every community surrounding Newton has done and what the Newton Public Schools have done and what Newton EMS have done, which is train and equip Newton police and fire fighters with this proven life saving tool.
We like to think we’re special in Newton. But this is the wrong way to distingish ourselves.
Jane,
Child restraint seems much more complicated. Narcan saves lives, period. Of course the issue is much bigger than just Narcan. Nobody is arguing this fact. Narcan only effects people whom are using opioids, so if there is any suspicion that somebody might be overdosing from opioids, then it should be administered. There is no harm in giving Narcan to somebody who is not overdosing. There are plenty of training videos/materials available online, that fully explain how to administer Narcan. If a teacher saw a student unresponsive, breathing his/her last breaths, and was able to administer a drug which could save their life, with no impact if given to somebody who was not on opioids, I am sure they would do so.
Child restraint involved so many other factors, and is not response to an immanent life or death situation.
@Jane – This is a means of saving human lives. Nearly two years ago, using his emergency powers, Governor Patrick cleared out the hurdles to make Narcan available to first responders and urged all MA city’s and towns to implement that access as soon as possible. Many towns promptly did. Newton didn’t. I don’t believe it’s at all unreasonable to want to know why this was so much more difficult for Newton than other towns.
There was nothing in Tom Lopez’s statement that indicated they were concerned about not having enough training or not suitable prepared. His comments were about other important aspects of the public health crisis (“identifying people at risk”, “treatment options”, “continued support of patients”) While those are all important issues for the city to also address, none of them should have held up this life saving initiative for two years.
This has probably never happened before, but I have to disagree with my friend Jane on this one. Sadly, there are sure to be many people posting on this thread who are intimately familiar with Narcan, although they wish to God they weren’t. That’s how bad this problem is. So many other cities and towns have found a way to get this done safely and effectively in the last couple of years. We’re really not that special – the problem here is no different than it is anywhere else, and we don’t have to reinvent the wheel on this.
That response is definitely infuriating. Haven’t heard anyone, anywhere say carrying Narcan to save lives is the only response needed to combat opioid abuse. It saves lives. The perfect analogy is the defibrillators Terry mentions which require training, don’t solve the problems that lead to heart disease but save lives.
At least now we know “the time of deployment is up to the department” and not the city. Wonder when that might happen – now would be good.
I don’t see any resemblance between child restraint and the use of Narcan.
Ditto. Ditto. Ditto.
Unlike Greg, I DO have an interest in assigning blame. I am happy that this moving in the right direction, but we are not there yet. The fact that this is taking so long is a failure of local government. I don’t know who to blame, but the firefighters’ statement certainly does not absolve them of potential blame. They have had decades to “fight” for better drug addiction treatment before this happen. Why now? It sounds like an excuse. The city is not absolved of blame. The police union is not absolved of blame. The city and police union seem more blame worthy than the firefighters union because they have been silent about the progress.
The timing of this is not a coincidence. Greg deserves kudos for starting a petition today. This almost makes up for last year’s blogs where the tags where NVA and Austin Street.
This is wonderful news. I have full faith in our fire chief and other staff that an appropriate training regimen will be implemented. Congratulations to Mayor Warren, Mr. Lopez, and any others behind the scenes who got us to this point.
So Everett among many other communities has seemed to figure this out. If anyone wants or needs training or free Narcan – here is what Everett is doing.
Narcan Training Event Set for January 25
January 20, 2016
By Independent Staff
The Everett Community Health Partnership – Substance Abuse Coalition will host a community Narcan training on Monday, January 25, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at the Parlin Library Community Room, 410 Broadway. This training will be conducted by the Cambridge Needle Exchange and is co-sponsored by the City of Everett, Everett Overcoming Addiction, OPEN – Overdose Prevention and Education Network and the Cambridge Health Alliance. This training is free and open to all Everett residents.
Attendees will learn how to recognize signs and symptoms of an overdose, what to do during an overdose and how to administer Narcan. Free Narcan kits will be available. Narcan is a life-saving drug that can reverse an overdose. Free and confidential screening and testing for HIV, Hepatitis C and other sexually transmitted infections will be available on-site.
“This training is designed for active substance users and those concerned about a friend or family member at risk of overdose,” said Jaime Lederer, Coordinator of the Everett Community Health Partnership – Substance Abuse Coalition. “We are working to provide the necessary tools and resources needed so that residents feel empowered to help a loved one at risk of overdosing.” Narcan provides an opening and buys time so that someone can get medical intervention and treatment. Additional resources about prevention, treatment and recovery support will be on hand.
The Everett Community Health Partnership–Substance Abuse Coalition (ECHP-SAC), an initiative of Cambridge Health Alliance’s Department of Community Health Improvement, is a community based multi-sector prevention coalition. Since 2003, the coalition has been committed to bringing together and mobilizing the diverse community of Everett to address issues associated with substance abuse while promoting positive health and well-being, especially among our youth. Through a range of prevention efforts, the coalition uses multiple strategies in multiple settings to change the social norms on alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use.
Not wanting to assign “blame” sounds good in theory and in elementary school where children’s choices aren’t well founded and generally not lethal. But when adults are not going forward with carrying a life saving tool in their tool box, along with oxygen and other lifesaving things, it follows one side is refusing to go forward. Without determining who that is, there is no way to hold anyone accountable so “blame,” in these cases as in many others, is important.
At this point all we know is the contents of the above email. From it we can determine that the fire department is choosing not to carry Narcan until proper programs are put in place and not all of their issues have been addressed but hopefully they will in the near future and that the fire department will determine “the time of deployment.” Carrying Narcan after training to be administered to save lives is indeed as simple as that. Otherwise the department is holding lives of those who have overdosed on herion hostage while waiting for programs they deem appropriate are being put into place. Nonsensical.
Thanks to all involved for helping us move one step forward.
Based on this statement from Tom Lopez, what is clear is that there’s a communication gap between the mayor and firefighters/police that is resulting in inexcusable problems. Although there’s no justification for first responders to not be carrying Narcan, if Tom is accurate in saying that the administration is refusing to bring the right people to the table to create and implement a community program with the purpose of addressing the root causes of opioid abuse specific to Newton, then the administration has some explaining to do.
I have no doubt that we all want to achieve the same goal, but the fact is that there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about doing this. On that note, I’m still waiting to learn any substantive information about the working group that the administration mentioned a few weeks back. It sounds like our first responders are, too.
Tom’s question is important. Who is in the “working group?” The fact that this took years is a failure of city government. We can’t prevent future failures unless we know what went wrong.
I 2nd Councilor Norton’s comments. Great work to the Mayor Sett Warren, and his staff, my colleagues Emily Norton and Jay Harney who “cut the line” in the P&S committee’s leaf blower debates to work with Chief Proia and Lt Tom Lopez (and the firefighters) to add this one part in our fight against Opioids, and to bring help to those in need. An awesome team effort!!
While I agree with Tom Lopez that Newton must “develop and implement broad spectrum program that can identify people at risk, provide treatment options for addicts, and continued support for the patient and their families long after treatment,” I also believe it is essential that first responders be trained to carry and administer Narcan. This story from this morning’s online edition of the Boston Globe demonstrates that it can and does save lives, including the life of a toddler who it seems is very lucky first responders in Worcester were able to give him Narcan.
I just received the following statement(s) from Chief Administrative Officer Dori Zaleznik in response to email I sent yesterday:
I hope we are considering following in Gloucester’s steps
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/08/17/the-only-town-in-america-where-cops-grant-amnesty-to-drug-addicts-seeking-help/
Yes, so much more needs to be done here in Newton. Recognizing the illness of addiction, treatment as a social ailment will not come easy in a city based on affluence, politics, and biased perceptions. We as a municipality are behind in the synchronizing of police, courts, and the medical community.
Andy Levin and Jonathan Dame shed some light on this subject in their article in the Tab today.
http://m.newton.wickedlocal.com/news/20160121/city-firefighters-reach-agreement-on-narcan?utm_term=view_as_webpage
An excerpt:
“[Fire Chief Bruce] Proia said he was “very confident” the city’s firefighters would be ready to use Narcan by the beginning of March.”
“Tom Lopez, president of the fire union, said he had concerns about training, liability, storage and safety that were addressed in the agreement. Now it’s up to the city to put the procedures and trainings in place before firefighters can use Narcan, he said. He insisted the only reason Narcan use wasn’t implemented sooner was because the city never raised the issue during bargaining sessions until recently.”
“Proia previously said the city didn’t raise the Narcan issue during bargaining sessions because the union wanted it to be discussed as part of negotiations for a new contract — a process that is ongoing, since June, 2014.”
“Newton police officers are still without Narcan.”