SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) - Drug addiction is fueling fatal overdoses in San Francisco and one of the reasons driving the homeless crisis on the streets.
While riding along with the city's Street Crisis Response Team, KRON4's Maureen Kelly encountered a drug user trying to get clean.
“I should have been dead already you know what I'm saying but I'm still here but I'm 50 now and I'm just tired of it. I have to do something I can't keep going like this out here,” Sheryl Motch said.
Sheryl Motch is homeless says she has been on the streets of San Francisco because of her addiction to crack and how easy it is for her to buy and use drugs here.
"Every day for 12 years because it's more lenient out here. I'm from San Jose, if I went to San Jose to do this I'd be in jail. You understand what I'm saying? In my opinion, they need to crack down here they really do," Motch said.
Motch walked up to Maureen Kelly as she was tagging along with one of the city's new Street Crisis Response Teams working the Tenderloin.
The team is made up of a community paramedic, a mental health clinician, and a peer support counselor and responds to nonviolent 911 calls involving mentally disturbed people.
They had just administered Narcan to someone on the verge of an overdose and were handing him off to an ambulance crew when the 50-year-old woman said she wanted help off the streets.
The peer support counselor uses his experience of being formerly homeless and a recovering drug addict to help build trust.
“A lot of us have been in the same whole that the people we are responding to are in and we can give them help on how to get out," Roland Brower said.
The clinician with the Street Crisis Response Team works for the non profit Healthright 360 that offers detox.
On the website, findtreatmentsf.org the city's department of public health has a list of the substance use and mental health residential treatment programs available for people who qualify for Medi-Cal and keeps the number of available beds for men and women updated.
There are nearly 490 beds now, the department of public health says another 140 beds are in the pipeline.
"I've been here for 12 years on a relapse and that's not good for me," Motch said.
Motch wasn't ready to get into detox immediately saying she needs to wrap up some loose ends but the team members are optimistic.
Since the Street Crisis Response Teams launched in November they say they're noticing an uptick in interest in available services.
The department of public health says between 2019 and 2020 over 5,400 people were enrolled in either inpatient or outpatient substance use disorder treatment programs.
Because Motch is homeless, if she does enter treatment, she'll be signed up on a priority list for housing.
The DPH spokesperson says they're working hard to ensure no one is discharged back to the street.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/3xYo4HN
No comments:
Post a Comment