Dead addicts don’t recover, but…

~ Jason Schwartz
Naloxone (1)
Naloxone (Photo credit: intropin)

This has gotten a lot of press. There’s naloxone distribution doubt this will reduce overdose deaths. However, some pretty important questions remain:

  • What happens after the overdose?
  • What services/interventions might have prevented the overdose in the first place?

The article references placing defibrillators in public places. What happens after someone is saved by one of those defibrillators? An ambulance comes and takes them to receive treatment. (Often treatment that costs tens of thousands of dollars.)

0 = Number of times the word “treatment/treat/treatable” appears in the article

0 = Number of times the word “recovery/recover” appears in the article

So … dead addict don’t recover, but why do we seem to care so little about treating what nearly killed the patient?

Published by Jason Schwartz

I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I no longer work at Dawn Farm and am now the Director of Behavioral Medicine at a community hospital, and a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work. Views expressed here are my own. Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.