Embarking on a safe, supportive, and effective journey away from substance use addiction is daunting. We no longer live in a world where “just say no to drugs” is considered effective or lasting. Yet for an individual ready to take those first steps toward recovery, where do you start?

One treatment option is Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD), which uses FDA-approved prescription medications in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies. Under the direction of a therapeutic team, these medications help normalize brain chemistry, enabling an individual to manage withdrawal symptoms and cravings.

Spectrum Health and Human Services offers MOUD as a treatment option. Over the past four years, with funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Spectrum Health partnered with Evergreen Health Services to lead a community education initiative on MOUD.

Key to this was also training individuals to administer Narcan to someone who has overdosed. “Narcan is often misunderstood,” says Spectrum Health Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Program Director Ann Bowback. “It doesn’t enable addiction: it can help save a life. Our team (Christopher Weber, Peer Support Specialist, and Amanda Taylor, Patient Support Specialist) attended dozens of events – from college basketball games to events for older adults – with the goal of eradicating misinformation and training people to use Narcan.”

The team had particular success in the Town of West Seneca. With the town’s cooperation, the MAT Team set up a table in the Community Center Atrium on the second Friday of the month. “We spoke with more than 400 people and distributed more than 300 Narcan kits,” says Bowback. “After three years of doing this, people began stopping at the table to tell us how they used the Narcan we shared to save someone’s life.”