In an effort to reduce unintentional (i.e., non-suicidal) fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses in Fall River, Connie Rocha-Mimoso of Seven Hills Behavioral Health has been offering training to Fall River police officers as part of their week-long annual training program. This effort is a strategy of the MassCall2 opioid overdose prevention effort. In the session, Ms. Mimoso goes over the problem of opioid abuse in the City and then describes how relatives, friends and others associated with an addict are offered training in the use of Narcan, an antagonist that can be administered to anyone who has overdosed on heroin or oxycontin or other opioids. The medication immediately stops the action of the drug and prevents the person going into respiratory failure and death. Opioid-related deaths are the leading cause of injury death in Massachusetts surpassing the number of deaths from motor vehicle injuries. Efforts to reduce these numbers are the focus of MassCALL2, a planning and  implementation grant funded by the Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Abuse Services (BSAS). In Fall River between 2003 and 2006, the number of fatal opioid-related overdose deaths totaled 60 and non-fatal overdoses totaled 205. Click here and here for photos of the planning sessions. For more information about the project, contact Project Coordinator Jenna Lagasse at 508-324-2415.