A United Group will Battle the Opioid Epidemic in Greater Fall River

In recent years Fall River had two broad-based groups on the front battling the opioid epidemic and supporting those who struggle to overcome addiction and sustain recovery. The Mayor’s Opioid Task Force was a city-led initiative best known for the successful Project Re-Connect, where health professionals, supported by law enforcement, reach out to individuals who have recently overdosed to encourage them to seek treatment, as well as Recover Fall River’s monthly outreach and education gathering of professionals and volunteers in the Government Center atrium that offered services to individuals and their families affected by the epidemic.

For over 25 years Greater Fall River Partners for a Healthier Community’s Substance Addiction Task Force (SATF) has been involved in efforts to foster additional prevention, treatment, and recovery programs. Its most recent effort has been the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded “Stop the Stigma" campaign.

Many members of the community participated in both groups and they collaborated on some initiatives, notably the annual Overdose Awareness Day held on August 31.

Earlier this year, shortly after assuming office, Mayor Paul Coogan met with both groups to discuss the their efforts and hear from them about how the city can best move forward in partnership with members of the community to prevent addiction and support the victims of the terrible disease. After weighing the results of those meetings and in discussion with Health and Human Services Director Tess Curran and other city officials he announced that the Mayor’s Opioid Task Force will be merging with the SATF.

In a note thanking members of the Mayor’s Task Force for their work Mayor Coogan and Curran said, “We feel as though working under one Task Force will strengthen and streamline efforts community wide.” All members of the Opioid Task Force were invited to join the SATF.

This was in late February. The first meeting of the expanded group was scheduled for late March.

No one could have imagined when these decisions were made that, due to the pandemic stay at home orders the planners would have to hit the pause button for two months or more before they could begin to implement the plan. But the intention remains to move forward with the formation of an expanded SATF that will coordinate the response to the opioid epidemic in Greater Fall River. Leaders of the group plan to organize several new subcommittees to address key components of an overall strategy in such areas as prevention, treatment, harm reduction, family support, and stigma.

The expanded SATF will be led by three co-chairpersons. Tess Curran, Fall River Director of Health and Human Services will represent the Mayor and the city. Stephanie Perry, a Registered Nurse and Addictions Specialist at Saint Anne’s Hospital, and Michael Coughlin (yours truly), longtime public health professional and a founder of Partners for a Healthier Community will continue as co-chairs of the SATF with Tess.

We held our first online meeting in May and will continue to meet online until the reworked “Safer at Home” orders are further relaxed.

We are in the process of developing a survey which will be disseminated to all of you in the near future. This survey will help to identify our strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in a more formal way and help to shape a strategic plan. Current efforts will continue and will ramp up in the community as we continue to get the chance to move out and about in the coming weeks and months. SATF member organizations like Peer 2 Peer, SSTAR, and Seven Hills are tentatively moving forward with cautious plans for in-person meetings and support efforts.

SATF meetings are held the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 3 p.m. For more information contact us at mcough4@hotmail.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PartnersSubstanceAbuseTaskForce/

Michael Coughlin is a member of Greater Fall River Partners for a Healthier Community and a Co-Chair of its Substance Abuse Task Force.