The increasingly troubling trend of drug addiction across the country along with the number of overdoses and drug related deaths that grows annually, has also been evident here in Saratoga County. As Chair of Saratoga County Health and Human Services in recent years, I have seen firsthand the dedication of our team toward the cause of battling the spread of drug abuse. We initiated an entirely new program to increase resources in an effort to turn the tide in a seemingly endless march of drug abuse leading sadly to many deaths in our local communities. We received some encouraging news recently. Overdose deaths in Saratoga County had fallen 19% last year. An incredible metric that provides us hope and inspiration to work harder in 2024. The number of overdoses remains far to high and the loss of any lives to addiction is an absolute tragedy. We will never stop this fight until we get the overdose number to zero. When we began this effort we weren’t exactly sure the steps necessary to make a difference. Therefore, we decided to try everything we know to do, ask for help in establishing priorities and analyzing every possible option to help as many people as possible. We will continue to increase resources in our program in 2024. In February, we will be taking steps to integrate new resources I have been discussing at committee meetings in 2023. We will be providing trained professional Certified Recovery Peer Advocates to work directly with our school systems in the County. More to come on this important new step.
Early in the process of developing our overall program, I met with families who had lost a loved one to an overdose or have a loved one struggling with addiction and asked for their view on what the County’s priorities should be in this fight. The information has been invaluable in this battle.
So far, we have implemented the following initiatives:
• Conducted dozens of Narcan training and distribution events throughout the County over the past year, resulting in more than 1,600 people trained, nearly 6,000 Narcan kits distributed, more than 2,200 fentanyl test strips distributed, and more than 1,400 Xylazine test strips distributed to community partners and community members.
• Partnered with the Prevention Council to offer the help of a Certified Recovery Peer Advocate available for referrals from the Sheriff’s Office Second Chance Program and the very successful Veterans’ Peer to Peer Program.
• Installed Naloxboxes in publicly accessible areas throughout the County.
• Brought in nationally recognized speakers, Chris Herron and Stephen Hill to speak to local high school students and community members about substance use prevention and recovery.
• Established Family Navigator and Certified Recovery Peer Advocate positions in partnership with the Prevention Council to help people navigate available addiction services in Saratoga County.
• Invested in a state-of-the-art Spectrometer that will be used to identify the components of illicit substances that are harming our residents, which will assist in our repose efforts.
• Met with families and advocates to better understand their needs and priorities, which has helped us in developing programs and services to assist County residents and families struggling with substance use disorder.
• Purchased drug disposal systems which are distributed with each Narcan training to encourage proper disposal of unused substances.
Clifton Park and Beyond 