Hennepin County health and public safety officials put out a first-of-its-kind overdose alert this week after a higher-than-normal number of drug overdoses—including six overdose deaths.
The alert comes as not so much a warning but as a chance for county teams to reach out to those impacted by the overdoses.
“The point of that intervention is to check on people who are still alive and living with a substance abuse disorder so we can offer help in real time,” said Bauch, the county’s opioid response coordinator. She said “real-time” in these cases typicall means within 24 hours of an overdose.
Bauch said those interventions may include resources and information about treatment programs or training and resources for better access to naloxone, the overdose reversal drug.
“The messaging we’re providing is that there is help and there is hope,” she said.
For more information about resources, visit hennepin.us/addictionhelp or call the county helpline at 612-348-4111.