Nassau DA Announces New Partnerships To Help Overdose Victims

On Tuesday, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced a new partnership between her office, Northwell Health, Nassau University Medical Center and Maryhaven's New Hope Crisis Center to help further close the "treatment gap" by immediately getting opioid overdose patients from the emergency room into a treatment program.

Singas's office previously used asset forfeiture money to help expand the services at Hew Hope. Now, she wants to make sure there's no gap between a patient who's going through opioid withdrawal getting the help they need.

“Since my office provided funding to expand New Hope’s services and admission hours in 2015, more than 2,200 people have been helped," Singas said. "They had a safe and supportive place to go through withdrawal and to be directed to the next phase of treatment. Now there will be no delay between the hospital and help. Thanks to the collaboration between New Hope, Northwell Health and NuHealth, a person in crisis in an emergency room will not just be stabilized, released and referred for future treatment – that person will meet a counselor in the emergency department and be transported directly to New Hope.”

On Monday, staff from New Hope – a member of Catholic Health Services of Long Island – began a pilot program with Northwell-LIJ and NUMC. New Hope staff are on call to respond directly to the hospital emergency rooms to work with hospital staff to counsel patients and immediately transport them to New Hope to begin treatment. The patient will be assessed to determine the next phase of treatment, and the New Hope staff will assist the patient with any necessary insurance, Medicare or Medicaid paperwork. The patient will remain at New Hope until there is availability in the next program, which is usually 7 to 10 days.

Typically, Singas said, users who overdose and are revived are stabilized and released from the emergency department because withdrawal is not considered medically life-threatening. The person in crisis is released back into the community while experiencing withdrawal. If the patient is released to a family member, the family member is frequently unequipped to handle the challenges of a person painfully withdrawing from drugs.

This treatment gap leaves many patients on their own during the most violent, painful and difficult throes of withdrawal, often leading to repeat use that can continue uninterrupted until death, according to Singas. This cycle can also lead to crimes often associated with the need for money to support opiate abuse, like robbery and burglary.

NUMC is also making 20 more beds available for detoxing patients, and is working with the county and Sheriff Vera Fludd to bring a re-entry Vivitrol program to the Nassau County Correctional Facility and by expediting a program to make medically assisted treatment inductions available through the emergency department.

“Addiction is a very complex and painful condition that continues to overwhelm families in our local communities, as well as law enforcement and medical professionals who are tasked with providing answers,” said Northwell Health president and CEO Michael J. Dowling. “That’s why this partnership with New Hope is so critical, especially during a public health crisis like the opioid epidemic. New Hope will serve as a bridge to treatment for patients in our emergency departments who are struggling with addiction. It’s an important step in our ongoing commitment to alter the course of this crisis.”

Since 2015, when Singas announced that her office committed $585,000 in criminal asset forfeiture funding to expand New Hope’s services, 2,212 individuals have benefitted from treatment through 2018. The funding allowed New Hope to expand admissions to 24/7 coverage. It also allowed New Hope to hire a nurse practitioner and psychiatrist to allow admission to patients with underlying health issues and to provide more treatment.

In 2018, according to the Nassau County Medical Examiner, 123 people died of an opioid-related overdose in Nassau County. Currently, the Medical Examiner has 72 cases that may or may not be opioid overdose-related. In 2017, 184 people died of an overdose in Nassau County.

“Throughout Long Island, the scourge of drug addiction has taken far too many young lives. Nassau County’s neighborhoods -- regardless of socioeconomic status -- are the front lines in the fight against addiction and overdoses," said George Tsunis, chairman of Nassau Health Care Crop. "Nassau University Medical Center is proud to announce the opening of three new programs to curb the advance of addiction and drug use by providing resources for those who need treatment in their own personal battles against addiction."