BIDDEFORD– Ninety-four people have died of opioid overdose in Biddeford since Jan. 30, 2017. That’s when Maegan Lambert-Irish, LCPC, LADC, started working for the Biddeford Police Department as an outreach liaison for people suffering from opioid misuse in the community.
It was also the number of white paper bags lined up outside the Biddeford Police Department last Thursday, wrapping as far around the corner as the line at Red’s Eats in Wiscasset.
Lambert-Irish, manning a table set with flyers bearing her personal phone number, pins, lanyards, and craft supplies – with a pyramid of Narcan boxes as the centerpiece – explained that that bags were luminaria; that evening, they’d be illuminated with electric tea candles to honor the dead.
“This is my passion,” Lambert-Irish said, “I could very well be on the opposite side of the table at any point in time. Anybody could have family members that suffer from addiction. I’d like to help a population that doesn’t have the resources to help themselves because I’d want somebody to do that for me if I was on the other side of the table.”
Facing Lambert-Irish across, not her usual desk as an addiction counselor but a folding table covered with a bright purple cloth, it wasn’t hard to imagine that she brought the same warmth and conviction to her work with Biddeford community members. The sort of resources Lambert-Irish might connect an individual with range from doctor’s appointments, referrals to other counselors, and treatment or detox programs.
The majority of the people being recognized last week passed away as adults, said Lambert-Irish. But many more people call her with a concern about a friend or family member who is young. Death numbers have decreased in Biddeford since she started working for the police department there in 2017, funded by a pilot program grant that the Department of Public Safety approved for six different police departments across the state.
The importance of making Narcan readily available, she said, is paramount. “You never know when somebody could overdose in front of you. …” she said, “it could be your grandmother, who forgot she’d taken her meds and took them again by mistake; it could be your dog, who got into a bottle of painkillers. We need to destigmatize Narcan and businesses need to start having it on hand.”
Nancy, a Biddeford resident who had stopped at the table to decorate a luminaria for her late daughter, agreed.
“People should be more aware,” she said, “I come out in the morning on my way to work, and people are standing there like zombies.”
Nancy’s daughter died when she was 33, leaving Nancy to care for her 18-month-old granddaughter. Her daughter was on methadone, a medication prescribed to treat people diagnosed with opioid use disorder, for 11 years. First her daughter’s teeth rotted, Nancy said, then she underwent two heart valve replacements. She ultimately died of an infection caused by a complication from the methadone.
“I don’t think anyone should be on methadone for that long,” Nancy said. She said more resources should be spent providing rehab and the kind of counseling services Lambert-Irish provides.
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