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Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health Follow-Up
The Greater Lowell communities offer various initiatives to engage with community members in need of support with substance use disorder and mental health needs. Law enforcement agencies have partnered with a variation of mental health, public health, fire, EMS agencies to create response teams to meet the immediate needs of community members in distress. Some towns offer post-overdose follow-up, while others deploy mental health clinicians and recovery coaches with police during routine engagement. Are you wondering what services your community offers? Check out your community’s page to learn more: Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Lowell, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford, Wilmington
Mental Health
More information to follow.
Substance Use Disorder
More information to follow.
Opioid Overdose
Because of the increase in opioid overdoses in our communities, many of the towns and cities within Greater Lowell have a procedure in place to follow-up with survivors of opioid overdose.
Post-opioid overdose outreach models vary slightly from community to community, and often include a member of the local police, fire, and/or health department(s) visiting a client at their place of residence. Often times, mental health and/or substance abuse clinicians are involved in post-overdose follow-up as a member of one of these departments.
Post-opioid overdose outreach is used to connect survivors with treatment and recovery resources, as well as medical, housing, employment, and family resources. Post-opioid overdose outreach focuses on harm reduction, or reducing risk by meeting a survivor “where they are at.” This might look like referring a survivor to a detox or outpatient treatment program or connecting a survivor’s loved ones to family support services. Some programs continue to follow-up with survivors even after an initial contact to provide continuous support.
So if you’re wondering what to do after an overdose, check out what the various post-opioid overdose outreach programs look like in your community on the following pages: