#healingnyc

Medications Can Treat Opioid Addiction

More New Yorkers die of drug overdoses than homicides, suicides and car crashes combined. Over 80 percent of drug overdoses in the city involve opioids, which include heroin and prescription painkillers, such as:

Heroin

Morphine

Oxycodone

Hydrocodone

Fentanyl

Methadone and buprenorphine are the gold standard of treatment for heroin and prescription opioid addiction.

Additional resources

Buprenorphine information brochure

Prescription painkillers brochure

Information for providers about treating opioid use disorder

Health alert: Fentanyl is killing New Yorkers

HealingNYC: The Bronx Fights Back

The new NYC Mayor’s Office plan to fight opioids in the South Bronx will:

Increase staff to assist first responders

Educate New Yorkers about the dangers of fentanyl

Distribute more naloxone kits

Save a Life. Carry Naloxone.

Naloxone is an emergency medication that reverses overdoses from opioids, such as heroin and prescription painkillers. 

Any New Yorker who wants this lifesaving medication should be able to get it without a prescription at certain community-based organizations (for free) and at participating pharmacies (with insurance or out-of-pocket) including Duane Reade, Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS.

Since July, New York City has distributed more than 70,000 naloxone kits, including to syringe exchange programs, health clinics and 132 community-based organizations.

Every NYPD officer who walks the street carries naloxone, and every EMT and paramedic has it on their waist band or in their ambulance.

As New Yorkers, we look out for each other to keep our whole city safe. Naloxone is available to anyone who is at risk of opioid overdose — or knows someone who is.

More resources

HealingNYC is aimed at reducing opioid overdose deaths by 35 percent over the next five years.

Our Tremont Neighborhood Health Action Center now offers free overdose prevention and reversal trainings.

If you or someone you know needs help with substance use, NYC Well can help 24/7/365. Call, text or chat online today.

Bronx Action Center to Offer Naloxone Trainings

As part of HealingNYC, our Center for Health Equity announced that the Tremont Neighborhood Health Action Center will offer free naloxone trainings and distribution to prevent fatal opioid overdoses.

The Action Center was recently registered in the New York State Health Department’s Opioid Overdose Prevention Program.

New York City is one of the first jurisdictions in the country to widely distribute naloxone — a safe and effective medication that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.

Three of the five neighborhoods with the highest rates of drug overdose deaths in the city are located in the Bronx.

Trainings, available monthly and on a drop-in basis, will educate community members on how to recognize an overdose and administer naloxone. Everyone who takes the training is offered a free naloxone kit, which has two doses of the medication.

>>Residents can sign up online.<<

More resources

Stop OD NYC app

NYC Well

Medications Can Treat Opioid Addiction

More New Yorkers die of drug overdoses than homicides, suicides and car crashes combined. Over 80 percent of drug overdoses in the city involve opioids, which include heroin and prescription painkillers, such as:

Heroin

Morphine

Oxycodone

Hydrocodone

Fentanyl

Methadone and buprenorphine are the gold standard of treatment for heroin and prescription opioid addiction.

Erik is living proof that buprenorphine treatment works.

Additional resources

Buprenorphine information brochure

Prescription painkillers brochure

Information for providers about treating opioid use disorder

Health alert: Fentanyl is killing New Yorkers

It’s International Overdose Awareness Day

Every seven hours, someone dies of a drug overdose in New York City, and more New Yorkers die from drug overdoses than from homicides, suicides and car crashes combined. These deaths are preventable.

The medication naloxone can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. All New Yorkers can receive free training to carry and use naloxone. 

Together we can #EndOverdose.

More resources

How to prevent drug overdose

How to find and use naloxone

NYC drug and alcohol data

Help to stop using drugs

Talk, text or chat using NYC Well

Fentanyl Involved in More Overdose Deaths Than Ever

You can’t see, taste or smell fentanyl. If you know someone who uses drugs, tell them to:

Use with someone else. If you overdose, you want to someone around to help.

Take turns. Don’t use at the same time, and be prepared with naloxone. Have a phone on hand in case you need to call 911.

Test your drugs. Use a small amount first to see how strong your drugs are. Even a tiny amount of fentanyl can cause an overdose.

Carry naloxone. More than one dose of naloxone may be needed to reverse a fentanyl overdose.

Avoid mixing drugs. Mixing drugs, including alcohol, increases your risk of overdose.

More resources

Alcohol and drug use main page

Prevent overdose

Opioid addiction treatment with buprenorphine and methadone

Improving Access to Naloxone in NYC

By Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Health Commissioner

When Mayor de Blasio took office four years ago, deaths from opioid overdose were climbing. Our crisis was and remains part of a tragic national opioid epidemic. Too many families across the city have lost their loved ones to opioid overdose. Protecting New Yorkers and saving lives is our highest priority. This is why we launched HealingNYC, our City’s strategy to get New Yorkers the help and resources they need to stay alive and have another chance at life.

Two weeks ago, the Administration increased its investment in HealingNYC to $60 million annually to reduce opioid overdose deaths and connect more New Yorkers to treatment. As part of this response, we are making naloxone  —  the lifesaving medication to reverse an opioid overdose  —  as ubiquitous as we can.