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Overdose Prevention Society Making House Calls

ROCKFORD, IL - JULY 14: A Rockford firefighter displays a dose of Naloxone which the department carries on their ambulances to treat opioid drug overdoses on July 14, 2017 in Rockford, Illinois. Rockford, a city of about 150,000 located in northern Illinois, averages about 2 overdose deaths per week, the majority of which are heroin related. Nationwide, an estimated 60,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses in 2016, more than gunshots or traffic accidents. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
ROCKFORD, IL - JULY 14: A Rockford firefighter displays a dose of Naloxone which the department carries on their ambulances to treat opioid drug overdoses on July 14, 2017 in Rockford, Illinois. Rockford, a city of about 150,000 located in northern Illinois, averages about 2 overdose deaths per week, the majority of which are heroin related. Nationwide, an estimated 60,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses in 2016, more than gunshots or traffic accidents. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Member Brandon Bailey tells AM800 News the group will now go to anyone, anywhere, anytime

Windsor's Overdose Prevention Society is going mobile.

The group has been fighting a public battle to establish an overdose prevention site that Windsor Police Services has made clear won't happen under current legislation.

Member Brandon Bailey tells AM800 News the group will now go to users instead.

"We'll go out to where they're at to meet them and supervise them to make sure they don't go into an overdose. If they do, they will be administered naloxone, receive rescue breaths and Emergency Medical Services will be called," he says.

Part of the society's mandate is to make sure the drugs being used aren't laced with an unknown substance, according to Bailey.

"We would definitely prefer to test everything. Some people, they don't want Fentanyl in their drugs. We have Fentanyl test strips," he says.

Bailey says the society hasn't given up on a permanent site.

"We want to work towards both, but for the interim we're focusing on the mobile unit," he added.

Bailey tells AM800 News the group will also hand deliver harm reduction kits with clean needles, and test trips — the kits also contain naloxone and the society will provide training on how to use it.

He says residents can contact the Overdose Prevention Society to clean up drug paraphernalia such as dirty needles found in the community.

Local News