Taking action to address overdoses

Experts in overdose response told Illinois Times they’re skeptical of Springfield’s capacity to treat people in need, despite the recent announcement that the city will use its share of opioid settlement funds to launch a crisis response team to aid people experiencing an overdose or mental health crisis.

Last month, Mayor Misty Buscher announced the Bridging Emergency and Community Outreach Network, or BEACON, which will be a city-run alternate 911 response team. Buscher said the city plans to purchase a new ambulance for BEACON, although it will not be used in the same way as traditional ambulances. Instead, it will be staffed by Springfield firefighters and licensed clinical social workers who will seek to connect people to treatment services.

Springfield Fire Chief Nick Zummo told council members last month that although BEACON’s main equipment will be an ambulance, the program’s framework is to get medical care to people in need rather than transport people in need of immediate resuscitation or social services to an already overwhelmed emergency department.

“We all work together as a team, as a community, as a city, to bring a treatment first, transport second product. Our idea is to get the right people in the streets to hopefully deliver the right care for the people that are in need,” Zummo told council members. “We’re hoping that bringing EMTs along with the social workers, and treating the people in the field, is going to get them the right help. But that’s not always the case, and if it is an opioid issue, things can go south very quickly when they’re on scene and we can transport if needed.”

Jonathan Stoltman, director of the national research think tank Opioid Policy Institute, which examines how local governments spend settlement funds, said the program sounds promising but an existing care network needs to be functional for people to actually receive treatment.

“I can see the potential here, and it’s hard to say more not knowing the current treatment infrastructure, because success really hinges on that connection to evidence-based care,” Stoltman said. That includes the availability of medications for opioid-use disorder, such as buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone, he said.

He also said that the ambulance purchased for the program should not be paid in full by settlement dollars, in his opinion.

“I don’t love when opioid settlement money pays the full freight for something that will only partially be used to respond to the opioid crisis. It doesn’t sound like BOLT is an opioid-dedicatedresponse vehicle or team, so it shouldn’t be paid in full with opioid settlement money,” Stoltman said.

Jennifer Carroll, an associate professor of anthropology at North Carolina State University who researches the lived experiences of substance use and various impacts of drug policy, told Illinois Times the alternative response proposal sounds good on paper. However, there needs to be ample treatment available for patients who are contacted by the BEACON program, she said.

“It’s pretty safe to say we have a total of five evidence-based, well-established, tried-and-true, known overdose prevention strategies,” Carroll said. Those strategies include:

1. Availability of “naloxone for reversing overdoses”

2. Accessibility to “medication for opioid-use disorder”

3. “Syringe service programs for access to all those things – and then it turns out just being in a destigmatizing environment enables people to make all kinds of healthier choices all around”

4. Prevalence of “drug-checking programs, which is also prevention and it helps people essentially know what’s in their supply”

5. “Overdose prevention sites, because that’s a combination of all of those things and it’s a stigma-free environment, so people can be open about what’s happening.”

Giving naloxone to first responders, medical professionals and the general public became a priority of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in recent years, but Carroll said more comprehensive services are needed if more lives are to be saved.

“We need a broad availability of services,” she said, referring to the five strategies she cited. “Those are the things that you need to have access to and then all the window dressing – which is all a really, really good idea – has to link out to those things that are already robustly there.”

Springfield has three dedicated providers of medication-assisted therapy, which uses a variety of drugs that can ease cravings and withdrawal symptoms for people attempting to stop using harsher drugs: Family Guidance Centers, Gateway Foundation and Rose Medical Association. However, any licensed doctor can prescribe these medications, typically methadone, buprenorphine or suboxone.

The Phoenix Center and Intricate Minds are the only syringe-exchange services in the capital city.

Meanwhile, overdose prevention sites have become common in a number of countries outside the U.S. The U.S. currently has one state-approved overdose prevention site, located in South Providence, Rhode Island. New York City’s two overdose prevention sites operate with approval from the city and Mayor Eric Adams, though no state laws protect OnPoint NYC, the nonprofit that runs the two sites.

Carroll said that while the gold standard of an overdose prevention site is unlikely for most communities, the demand for substance-use disorder treatment should not outweigh the actual system of care.

“I understand that overdose prevention sites might not be politically feasible in all places, but those are the big five (tactics), and so, do we have enough of those? Do we have so much of those that we literally just need to go into the street and be like, ‘Hey, we have so much naloxone. We have so much treatment availability. Who wants some?’” she said. “That’s what your street outreach team can do, and that’s what the post-overdose response team can do.”

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This article appears in November 13-19, 2025.