HOLYOKE — Looking at the crowded hospitals, climbing death tolls and increased disease, it is easy to see the direct impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on people’s health.
But the pandemic has also brought with it secondary impacts, including an increase in drug overdoses and overdose deaths. Liz Whynott, director of harm reduction at community health organization Tapestry, said Tuesday that it has been a “real struggle” for those working in opioid treatment and overdose prevention.
“It has been very very difficult these past couple of years with COVID,” Whynott said.
Whynott was speaking at Tapestry’s Holyoke offices, along with state Sen. John Velis, D-Westfield, and state Rep. Pat Duffy, D-Holyoke, who were there to announce that they had secured $25,000 in federal coronavirus relief funds for Tapestry’s work.
“People could be forgiven for not knowing about the other crisis we still have going on,” Velis said. “People are dying left and right, overdoses are up.”
In November, the state Department of Public Health released data from the first nine months of 2021, which showed a small increase in opioid-related overdose deaths, following a 5% uptick in 2020. The state report also noted that Holyoke and Springfield both experienced a notable increase in opioid-related deaths from 2019 to 2020.
Across the country, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that there was a 28.5% increase in drug overdose deaths across the nation in the 12-month period ending in April 2021.
Whynott said that Tapestry is approaching its 10th anniversary, and has come a long way in terms of helping reduce overdose deaths, HIV and hepatitis C infections in the region. But with the pandemic came isolation and difficulties accessing care, which exacerbated what was already an opioid crisis in the region.
“Holyoke has been especially hard hit,” Whynott said.
During the pandemic, Whynott said, referring people to detox or treatment became difficult. And Tapestry had to step away from the essential one-on-one care and support it provides to people. The organization adapted — seeing clients outdoors, for example. But “it still just had negative effects on a lot of care,” she said.
The $25,000 coming to Tapestry is money the state received from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA — the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill meant to address the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.
The lawmakers said that Tapestry was an obvious recipient of that funding. The organization, Duffy said, has for years been doing “ground-breaking work meeting people where they’re at.”
“Tapestry — really you’re the boots on the ground,” Velis said.
Cheryl Zoll, Tapestry’s CEO, said the money was “life-saving funding.” Whynott said the funds will go toward efforts to put the opioid-overdose reversing medicine Naloxone in lockboxes around Holyoke, for example, and to promote the other resources Tapestry provides to those seeking help.
The funding was part of how lawmakers across the region are grappling with the opioid crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on that epidemic.
Some neighboring states, for example, are opening safe consumption sites where people can use drugs such as heroin in a place where they can be off the streets, and where services and help are available. President Joe Biden’s Justice Department told the Associated Press that it is “evaluating” those facilities and talking with regulators about “appropriate guardrails” for their opening. New York City has opened two safe injection sites.
Massachusetts is considering a similar bill, which is at the moment in the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery. A hearing on the bill occurred in September, and lawmakers have until May 9 to report the bill out of committee.
Duffy said she supports the bill as a harm-reduction strategy.
“It’s this kind of work,” she said, gesturing around Tapestry’s offices. “It is meeting people where they are.”
Velis, who has been vocal about his own struggles with alcoholism, said he isn’t ready to commit to voting for or against the bill. He said he needs more information and intends to travel to Canada soon to see how that country has done opening similar sites.
“It is one of the most polarizing topics out there,” he said. “I really want to go and see where they’re doing this.”
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.