(The Westfield News/MassLive – Miasha Lee) Baystate Noble Hospital’s Opioid Task Force is devoting its funding this year to the hospital’s Emergency Department.
The Opioid Task Force comprises internal constituents as well as community stakeholders focused on the needs of the Westfield community, specifically those with opioid addiction and substance use disorder.
In this year’s state budget, state Sen. John Velis secured a $75,000 earmark for substance abuse funding at Baystate Noble Hospital in Westfield.
“Western Massachusetts, and our commonwealth as a whole, continues to see high rates of opioid use and overdoses,” Velis remarked. “Part of our work to combat this epidemic is about ensuring that our health care professionals and emergency departments have the resources they need to help people who are struggling.”
Registered nurse Sarah Warn and registered nurse and nurse educator Heather Colon, who work in the Emergency Department at Baystate Noble, were recruited to be a part of this project. Warn has experience working as a nurse with adults who have mental illness and substance use disorder, while Colon has experience working as a nurse in a methadone clinic.
“Heather and I were honored to have been asked to join this project,” Warn said. “We didn’t know what we were getting into, but pretty much we are starting this from the ground up.” She continued, “We are developing a plan with some goals. We want to use the funds to create an awareness of substance use disorder and provide a resource nurse in the emergency department.”
Colon added, “We also want to get the community engaged and talk about the stigma of substance use disorder to change the way the public thinks and educate the public on the use of Narcan in opioid overdoses in the community.” Colon went on to say, “We also want to serve as a safe space for people. We want people to feel like they can access our resources, so we’re going to be doing education with the nursing staff and the providers in hopes of educating and destigmatizing substance use disorder.”
In doing that, Warn and Colon are hoping that patients who are struggling will come to them in the emergency room and feel confident that the hospital will give compassionate care as well as serve as a resource for them if they need to get into a detox or get medication. Warn and Colon hope to set up a help line so that people can contact a nurse for information and help overcoming substance abuse 24 hours a day.
Warn and Colon are working with Jessica Holden, director of nursing and allied health at Westfield State University, and collaborating with Tapestry Health. They’re designing a packet of information for anyone to pick up in the emergency room. This information will have numbers for various programs, detox centers and community services. They would be adding some out-of-state resources to the list, as they see some patients from other areas like New Jersey and New York City, as well as other regions of Massachusetts, like Boston.
Warn and Colon also hope to be host some events in the near future to educate the community and staff at Baystate Noble Hospital on substance abuse topics.
The money must be spent by June, so Warn and Colon only have a few months to get things done. Then they will see what happens at that point and hopefully continue in the next fiscal year.
“We’re looking forward to achieving these goals and working towards these goals,” said Warn. “We’re excited about the things that we want to do. We have lots of ideas, but we’re still on the developing and planning stage.”
Colon replied, “If it saves one person’s life or changes one person’s life in any way, everything is worth it.”