Firefighters in Peabody and communities across the country save lives in many different ways. They rescue people from burning buildings and bring them back to life from drug overdoses.
The role firefighters play in battling addiction has prompted Peabody Fire Department members to take a bold and humane step to help addicts. Armed with statistics and information about overdoses in the city, firefighters are reaching out to addicts and urging them in face-to-face conversations to get the help they need.
This type of outreach is not a new concept. Police officers and firefighters historically have approached people they see in the course of fighting crime and fighting fires and urged them to take a straight and narrow road for the sake of their health and their families.
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Addiction is a national problem that touches every family directly or indirectly. Few, if any, Americans don’t know a family member, neighbor, co-worker, casual acquaintance or good friend who is in the grips of addiction or has a loved one plagued by addiction.
Firefighters who spend a few minutes or, maybe, hours talking to an addict or the relative of an addict about opioid abuse are sharing knowledge, empathy and sympathy with someone who is suffering.
It’s compelling to visualize a firefighter knocking on an addict’s door and telling the person who answers the knock, “Listen, I’ve saved addicts’ lives. I’ve also seen addicts die. I might save your life someday or witness your death. But today can be the day you take the first steps to saving your own life.”
Public attention has been focused at the state level and nationally on the war on opioid addiction. There is a universal consensus over the severity of the addiction problem and its human toll. There is less unanimity over how to end addiction. Substance abuse prevention advocates call for more detoxification and rehabilitation beds. Law enforcement proposes new sentencing or arrest protocol suggestions and legislators draft proposals aimed at cracking down on how opioid pain medication is dispensed in hopes of narrowing the gateway leading to addiction.
All of these approaches are well-meaning and usually well thought-out. But the direct approach to talking to addicts injects a degree of honesty into combating addiction. Addicts who have overdosed know a police officer, paramedic or firefighter was most likely the person who saved their lives. They know they can’t hide from or fool someone who is paid to fight on the front lines of addiction.
Peabody firefighters and counterparts across the country may never know if they save a life by knocking on an addict’s door. But that won’t keep them from continuing to try.