Sheriff says Naloxone was Key in Reducing County’s Overdose Deaths

Discover the powerful impact of naloxone in combating overdose rates in Cayuga County as Sheriff Brian Schenck joins us for an eye-opening discussion. What if a simple tool could drastically reduce overdose incidents and save countless lives? Sheriff Schenck shares real-world success stories and compelling statistics showing a drop in overdose incidents from 14 to 11 per month. With fatalities decreasing from 23 in 2020 to just one this year, the results are nothing short of inspiring. Sheriff Schenck's optimism shines through as he discusses the ambitious goal of bringing overdose fatalities down to zero.

Chapters

• 0:00 Naloxone and Overdose Reduction Success
• 4:12 Community Efforts to Distribute Naloxone

Transcript

Isabel Byon: 0:00

The New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports, or OASAS, provides this podcast as a public service. Thoughts and opinions expressed do not necessarily represent or reflect those of the agency or state. This is Addiction: The Next Step.

Jerry Gretzinger: 0:23

Welcome to another episode of Addiction: The Next Step. I'm your host, J erry Gretzinger, and you know today we are bringing in another guest to chat with us about some really encouraging numbers. We're talking to someone from law enforcement and the numbers have to do with overdose rates, and so I'm going to very happily introduce Sheriff Brian Schenck from Cayuga County and Sheriff. I want to get right to this because a lot of people who follow the Office of Addiction Services know that we have really made it a priority to get naloxone Narcan out as easily available and accessible as possible throughout the state of New York, and you have some really encouraging information to share about how that's impacting things in your county.

Brian Schenck: 1:09

We do and thank you for having me on. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about what we're doing in our community. But we have seen some very positive results in the community-wide effort that we've had here in Cayuga County in harm reduction and getting naloxone and Narcan out within our community. But this year our overdose rates seem to be going down. We're at a rate of 44 overdoses that we've had year-to-date from January 1st until the end of April. That averages about 11 per month in our community but that's down considerably from what we've had over the past few years. Unfortunately, one fatality report this year so far, but last year we had seven total fatalities and we were seeing overdose rates at about 14 per month. So we're actually reducing the numbers and those numbers are down even considerably from years prior to that. But I do believe that it really does have a direct correlation to the work that we've been doing many agencies within our community to push Narcan out throughout the community and I believe it's certainly saving lives.

Jerry Gretzinger: 2:14

Yeah, so I just for people who don't know I know a lot of people are aware but Narcan, naloxone it's the most popularly or commonly delivered through a nasal spray and it's an opioid antagonist, so it blocks the receptor, so if someone is going into overdose it stops it in its tracks and it saves lives, and so this is exactly the kind of information that we are excited to hear about, that it is out there, it's in the communities and doing what we hope it will do. Talk about what it was like, if you don't mind, sheriff, the last couple of years leading up to this year, and seeing what the numbers were doing, and you know the effect on the department and on your community.

Brian Schenck: 2:57

Sure. Well, this is certainly difficult for everyone to deal with when you're seeing a large number of overdoses certainly fatal overdoses in your community. That's obviously not good for anybody, certainly for the families that they're. You know, dealing with a loved one that has the substance use disorder and you know we certainly hate to see any fatality. But in 2020, we had 23 fatalities in our community related to opiate overdoses and in 2021, we saw 18. In 2022, we saw 14. So we have seen those numbers decline a little bit from 2020 on and prior to that those numbers were fairly consistent. But I'm really again proud to say this year to date, we've had one fatality documented. So that tells me that the Narcan is getting out there, that it is saving lives, and you know my goal is to see that number next year drop to zero. I think that's a pretty ambitious goal, obviously, but you know if we can continue to do that, you know we're going to continue to push this out and hopefully see our positive results continue.

Jerry Gretzinger: 4:03

Yeah, yeah, and I you know you're right. I mean one is still too many, but what a tremendous turnaround. And if we can get to zero, I mean it's closer now than it's ever been. What have you done with the Sheriff's Department and in the community to try to help get naloxone out there into the hands of the people who can stand to benefit from having it available to them?

Brian Schenck: 4:22

So for us here at the Sheriff's Office we've been focusing certainly on our law enforcement officers. Our sheriff's deputies are out in the field. They carry naloxone with them so they are able to utilize that in an emergency. But you know, we've been doing some other things as far as looking at our jail setting and we've been offering training on how to use naloxone within our jail facility to the incarcerated population and we've been providing that to them when they leave, if they're willing to take that. So to not only have it when they leave but to understand how to use that, whether they need to use it themselves or maybe help somebody else out in the community that's struggling. We've made that readily available. But we have a number of community agencies here in Cayuga County that are making naloxone available to the public. Our Cayuga County Mental Health Center has an actual kiosk or a machine where people can go and get Narcan for free at any time. But they've been working very aggressively through our Mental Health Center to have Narcan n Naloxone pop-up events throughout Cayuga County to offer that to the public and to educate people on how to use that and the importance of it. And we've been doing a lot of work around stigma. For years in our community, w e've been trying to help people within our community that might not have experience relative to this topic understand the importance of supporting those that are struggling with substance use disorders and getting this life-saving medication out. There is just one of the things, one of the initiatives to try to treat this problem from that angle.

Jerry Gretzinger: 6:27

And you're absolutely right, it's about saving lives and I, just as you were explaining that, it made me think you have a personal connection that kind of started you on the journey of wanting to work so much in this arena as well, right?

Brian Schenck: 6:49

I do, and you know I will say that, you know, a decade ago, I had some differing opinions when it came to how to address these issues. I didn't understand substance use disorders, but over the course of my career as a law enforcement officer and as an investigator I was an investigator for a number of years investigating deaths and many of them being, you know, fatalities related to drug overdose I overdose, saw what was happening. I dealt with families that were dealing with these issues and, unfortunately, a very close childhood friend in 2009. I was tasked with responding to his death and he died as the result of an opiate overdose. And I can say that in the years that followed, you know, my understanding of these issues started to change.

Brian Schenck: 7:31

I started to see the benefits and, you know, not only attacking this issue from a law enforcement front but, you know, providing treatment resources, providing, you know, information and education on prevention and certainly, as part of our treatment initiatives, getting the Narcan and n aloxone out there to try to save lives, and I think that it's working.

Brian Schenck: 7:52

And I think that it's working, and you know I have very strong feelings when it comes to our push of the Narcan and our n aloxone.

Brian Schenck: 8:00

I think that we need to be doing that in our community.

Brian Schenck: 8:06

But at the same time, each and every time we provide that medication, you know we need to be providing information on resources that are available in our community to help that individual get to a path of recovery, and we are doing that as well.

Brian Schenck: 8:16

So I've, you know, I've seen kind of a change personally of my understanding of the challenges with these things. But I, you know, I'm glad that I do have a better understanding and I've learned a lot along the way from peers in our community who have lived experience, who've been down that road, you know, who overdosed themselves, who nearly died, and I have some that are extremely good, good friends of mine. I have a couple of good friends in that recovery community that are in our jail every day bringing that message of hope and talking to our incarcerated population about how they found that path. So you know, I've seen a different side of things, I've kind of changed my opinions on this, but it's pretty clear that you know there are strategies, there are things we can do to support people dealing with those challenges, to get them to a better place.

Jerry Gretzinger: 9:07

Yeah, and you know a couple of things you said there that kind of jumped out at me. I mean one you talk about. You know how your opinions have changed over the years, and that's a lot of what we're trying to do. Also, we want people to take another look at this and to change opinions, because we know so much more. We have so much more information. You talked about harm reduction, which is such a major focus for our agency right now, and that's what n aloxone Narcan is all about. It's about saving lives, giving people the opportunity down the road when they're ready to move towards treatment and, like you said, recovery. So I personally am feeling great about what you've had to say here today, what you're doing with your organization and your county and your community, and I feel like we're partners doing a lot of the same work right now, which is terrific.

Brian Schenck: 9:53

Absolutely, and you know I use the key word, that's partners, no one entity or agency. As you know, and I'm sure many of your listeners that are going to listen to this know that it does take a full community. It takes law enforcement. It takes, you know, every agency and entity that can touch somebody that is addressing or is dealing with an addiction problem. It takes everybody to deal with this and you know I would like to share one more story here as far as what kind of changed my opinion.

Brian Schenck: 10:21

I remember one day here in my office as sheriff, I had a father of an individual struggling that came in to see me one day and he was literally in tears, saying that he didn't have any Narcan and his son had overdosed a number of times at home and he feared that every time that happened, the next one was going to be, you know, unfortunately, one where his son didn't make it, but he basically was crying, begging me for some Narcan, you know, and I did find him some Narcan, I got him set up with Narcan. But you know, you know that side of things, when you see that it's not only the person struggling but it's the family members of individuals that are struggling, you know they certainly deserve our help as much as anybody in our community that needs help with any challenging issues.

Jerry Gretzinger: 11:04

Absolutely, and that speaks us. You know, right back to harm reduction. We want people to have these resources available, these supplies. You know, right back to harm reduction, we want people to have these resources available, these supplies, and you know we make these available not just for the folks who may be using substances, have a substance use disorder, but for the people in their lives, these family members like you mentioned, because we want them to have Narcan, naloxone if they're with a loved one when there is an overdose, so that they can save that life and let them again continue that opportunity towards treatment and recovery. Sheriff, this is, this is great. I love the work you're doing. I do love the fact that we are a partnership with this. You also talked about stigma, and certainly I hope that's becoming less and less of that. You know that that monkey on the backs of everything we're trying to do here and let people see through that. You know substance use is a disorder, it's a diagnosis, and we are doing everything we can to make the supplies and services available, so I want to send people to our website also. Before I do that, though, S heriff, do you want to give out some resources that you may have through your agency?

Brian Schenck: 12:03

So we certainly have a number of resources that are available within our community. It just is a testament to the partnerships that we have here. But certainly if you go to our website here at cayugacounty. us, you can search out some resources. You can search those out through our page here at the Sheriff's Office and there's information on how to access all kinds of different services and access Narcan and n aloxone if you need it.

Jerry Gretzinger: 12:29

Excellent, excellent and on our end of things, I can tell you, if you go to oasas. ny. gov, o-a-s-a-s dot n-y, dot g-o-v you'll go right there on the homepage, you'll see the link to order n Naloxone drug test strips. They can be sent direct to your home, no questions asked. Just fill it out, and it's on its way. And that gets us a long way towards our goal, which is to make sure it's available and accessible in every corner of New York State. Sheriff, thank you again for sitting down and chatting with us today. Really appreciate the work you're doing and the time you took for us this afternoon.

Brian Schenck: 13:00

Thank you all for the opportunity today and I appreciate the work that you're doing as well.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:03

Thank you. All right and we're going to have you back. I want to hear about how these numbers continue to come down. That's what we're looking for, so keep us posted.

Brian Schenck: 13:10

Will do.

Brian Schenck: 13:10

Thank you.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:10

All right, and thanks everybody out there for joining us for another episode of " Addiction: The Next Step I'm Jerry Gretzinger. Hey, you know, if you ever have a topic you'd like us to address, send us an email it's communications@ OASAS. NY. GOV and we'll talk to you again soon.