Pittsburgh City Council approves $1 million program to support overdose victims

Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday approved a $1 million program that aims to help people who have overdosed.

The Post Overdose Support Team — or POST — pilot program is set to act as a secondary response that will provide additional support once EMS has responded to an overdose.

The team will include peer recovery specialists and case managers who could help people connect with recovery services, officials said.

The program will initially focus on Downtown and the South Side, said Camila Alarcon-Chelecki, assistant director of the Office of Community Health & Safety. She said those areas have the highest numbers of overdoses, according to data OCHS has gathered in collaboration with the city’s police and EMS.

Many overdose patients get Narcan, but decline to go to the hospital or get additional help, Alarcon-Chelecki said. That’s where the POST team will step in.

“People who are experiencing these overdoses are mainly unhoused, in extreme poverty,” and often wary of the health care system, she said. The POST team will partner directly with EMS to provide services to people who are wary of going to the hospital and who may be “more vulnerable” and at heightened risk of overdosing again, she said.

The team will be able to provide harm reduction supplies like Narcan and test strips, Alarcon-Chelecki said. They also could provide temporary housing in a hotel or motel, offer someone a meal or help them to connect with recovery programs.

“People who are in crisis don’t trust a lot,” Alarcon-Chelecki said, but may be more likely to trust peer recovery specialists who have had similar experiences.

Officials will track data “to see if we actually are reducing the volume call” for overdose-related incidents to measure the program’s success, she said.

The one-year pilot program will be funded through a $1 million federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Alarcon-Chelecki said there may be opportunities to expand the program if it can prove itself successful in the first year.

Council unanimously approved the measure Tuesday. Council members Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield, and Bruce Kraus, D-South Side, were not present for the vote.