05.13.22
Senator Murray: “This is effort, and we owe it to our very first responders to make certain they have all the assistance they require.”
*** LISTEN TO SENATOR MURRAY’S FULL ROUNDTABLE HERE ***
( Seattle, WA)– U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, Pensions Committee, hosted a roundtable with very first responders and health care employees in Seattle to go over the opioid crisis in Washington state, the rise in fentanyl, and her work in the Senate to deal with the crisis and get households and communities the assistance they require. Senator Murray was signed up with by Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins, State Agent Nicole Macri, University of Washington Addictions, Drug & & Alcohol Institute Concept Research Study Researcher Dr. Caleb Banta-Green, Public Health– Seattle & & King County social employee Thea Oliphant-Wells, Aurora Commons Executive Director Elizabeth Dahl, and City of Seattle Health Combination Strategist Jeff Sakuma.
” It is painfully clear this pandemic set our whole nation back catastrophically when it comesto substance use disorders Our households are harming, and nobody understands that much better than the people in this space,” stated Senator Murray. ” This is effort, and we owe it to our very first responders to make certain they have all the assistance they require. That’s why I have actually continuously pressed to get more resources to our communities so they can continue investing in the programs they are seeing do the most great.”
” I have actually continuously worked throughout the aisle to get more resources to our communities so they can continue investing in the programs they are seeing do the most great,” continued Senator Murray. ” And I’m working on brand-new bipartisan legislation today to reinforce the tools we have to support the work occurring on the ground in our state to address overdose deaths. It’s so essential to me that I get the chance to listen to these stories and to communities throughout Washington–and take them with me back to the other Washington.”
” We have actually heard more and more terrible stories of overdose deaths as we have actually seen the numbers of people living unsheltered boost and the expansion of fentanyl use in our community,” stated State Agent Nicole Macri. ” It is certainly striking us hard. In the last 2 years, the legislature has actually taken actions to invest over $800 million to reinforce our behavioral health system statewide … that consists of over $125 million in targeted, particular services for substance use disorder.”
” We react to about 4 overdoses here at Seattle Fire every day, so that’s about 1,200 to 1,500 a year,” stated Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins. ” A minimum of 4 times a day our systems are going and we have the resources that can link people up to services. So Senator Murray, thank you for all your efforts in assisting us do this.”
” What I’m actually seeing is that fentanyl is so powerful, inexpensive, and offered that it’s actually requiring us to lastly do something various, we have to,” stated Dr. Caleb Banta-Green, Principal Research Study Researcher at the UW Addictions, Drug & & Alcohol Institute in the UW School of PublicHealth ” So by integrating the opioid addiction treatment medications buprenorphine and methadone with continuous engagement services, damage decrease services and materials, stabilization supports, and trauma-informed care, that’s our finest possibility at making a damage in this crisis.”
” Living homeless and having a lot of barriers to care, having damage decrease areas is definitely crucial, areas that are open for people to get here whenever and nevertheless they are” stated Thea Oliphant-Wells, a social employee at Public Health– Seattle & & King County, who has actually lived skilled with homelessnessand opioid use disorder ” A lot of my work as a social employee in damage decrease settings has actually been developing that relationship, that trust with that individual so they understand that I’m not there to damage them.”
” Aurora Commons is a community area that provides person-centered, relationship-driven design of care for people experiencing homelessness and people who use drugs,” stated Elizabeth Dahl, Executive Director of Aurora Commons. ” We have actually lost a disastrous quantity of people to the opioid crisis, a disastrous number for deaths that are avoidable. We require to be able to react to the rise in overdose with the tools that can help prevent overdoses.”
” We require to continue to action in to actually attempt to engage with people through outreach, through these areas where people feel safe to come within and engage with staff,” stated Jeff Sakuma, Health Combination Strategist at City of Seattle.
The Centers for Illness Control and Prevention approximate the country saw over 107,000 overdose deaths in 2015–an all- time high. Because 2019, overdose deaths in Washington state have actually increased by two-thirds, and the crisis has actually grown even worse across the country–with the increase sustained by fentanyl, in specific. Throughout hearings, Senator Murray has actually likewise highlighted how our substance use disorder labor force is extended thin, and that nationwide, less than one in 10 people who require treatment for substance use disorder really get it.
Senator Murray has actually long battled to assistance communities and households having a hard time with substance use disorder, and is presently working to deal with the aggravating opioid crisis.
As Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Solutions, Education, and Associated Agencies (LHHS), Senator Murray was likewise crucial in passing the current federal government financing plan in March which provides more than $ 5 billion for programs resolving mental health and substance use disorders– that expense passed with a more than $300 million boost to address substance use disorders over the last federal government financing plan thanks to Senator Murray’s efforts. Cash from the federal government financing plan Murray assisted pass provides financing for things like: considerable resources for the State Opioid Reaction Grant program; the Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, opioid overdose monitoring and prevention at CDC; and resources to help impacted rural communities particularly such as the Rural Emergency Medical Solutions Training and Devices Program, which assists emergency responders train staff and purchase overdose turnaround medications.
In her function as Chair of the HELP Committee, Senator Murray is likewise leading the efforts on a bipartisan plan to reauthorize, enhance, and broaden federal mental health and substance use disorder programs– Murray has actually been a long time leader in taking on the opioid crisis in Congress, working with her Republican equivalents to advance considerable bipartisan legislation to deal with the opioid crisis, consisting of under the Trump administration
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