GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Cherry Health is tackling the opioid crisis head-on and in a convenient way.
Tuesday, they installed two Narcan vending machines outside of their health centers: one located at Cherry Health Heart of the City Health Center at 100 Cherry St. SE and one on Lafayette Street in Greenville.
“This makes my heart happy knowing that every day we’re doing something that can help someone else,” said Bob Smith during an interview with Fox 17 on Tuesday afternoon. “I think organizationally there’s a ton of support in how do we get as much help out to the community as possible.”
Smith is the director of behavioral health therapy at Cherry Health.
He said the one at the Greenville location was already filled with Narcan. However, the one at Cherry Street was empty but was scheduled to be filled by the end of the week.
“Narcan is a medication that can help with overdose reversal from opioids,” Smith said. “So it’ll go in and land on the receptors sites where the opioids are, kicked some off, and allow someone to return to breathing and staying alive.”
@CherryHealthMI is tackling the opioid crisis head-on. They teamed up with the @RedProjectGR to install 2 Narcan vending machines — one in Montcalm & one at Cherry st — thats free and accessible 24-7. // @FOX17 pic.twitter.com/4e9CEUGPwN
— Lauren Edwards (@LaurenEdwardsTV) December 7, 2022
Cherry Health teamed up with the harm reduction nonprofit the Red Project, which received funding from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to install the vending machines. There’s been one at the Red Project on Madison Avenue SE and Hall Street SE for a year.
According to the state, 81 percent of overdose deaths between January 2020 and November 2021 were opioid-related.
“Opioid overdose is a huge cause of death in the United States. It continues to increase year after year,” said Stephen Alsum, executive director of the Red Project. “There’s a few things we can do that we know save lives on a community level and one of those is equipping community members with Naloxone Rescue Kits.”
Alsum applauded the additional vending machines being installed. He said there are already talks about having them include fentanyl test strips and take-home HIV tests in the future.
Smith added that they’re open 24-7 and are free of charge.
“Addiction, substance abuse, Opioid Use Disorder, this is something that affects all of us,” Smith said. “It is something that just as communities, and as a whole, need to be better abreast at treating and helping people stay alive. It’s really hard to offer services to dead people.”
