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Although opioid overdose crisis should be prevented, it has led many instances, particularly in the South Bronx that challenge the NYC authorities. Many people assume that overdoses should not be treated as crisis. On one hand, wealthy people argue that government should not spend money to heal an addict and reincorporate in society. On the other hand most people contend that overdose is a crisis that affect the whole community and should be prevented. Even if overdoses may seem of concern to only a small group of people, it should in fact concern anyone who cares about our community. However, a number of traditional and nontraditional collaboration to improve the opioid overdose crisis have been conducted by the authorities to cease the crisis and prevent more instances. The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and its Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in an effort to improve the crisis created a Geospatial Information System Maps to catch data that may improve population health and education. Through the different maps of the city, the FDNY shows the places where the incident happen using dark color for the higher events and light color for the fewer. Consequently, the South Bronx Community should improve their health and educational system.

Opioid Overdose Crisis

Opioid overdoses has become in a crisis. Described for the National Center for Injury Prevention Control “more than 70,000 people died due to any drug overdose in 2017”. Also that crisis had led consequences as neonatal abstinence syndrome, HIV and Hepatitis C in our community. Of course, the country and more specific our community is facing a crisis. In my view, you must live in a low income area to have so much evidence about that.

In particular, opioid overdoses in The Bronx are focused in the south Bronx, while the northern part of the borough has experienced few overdoses.The Journal of Pediatric Health Care Volume 33, Number 3 observed that more than 30 percent of the outpatient emergency department visit were opioid overdoses and 718 hospitalization in the Bronx area. These data suggest that the South Bronx is the “most needed” and “the target for prevented measures”. By focusing on the areas of need the FDNY overlooks the deeper problem of overdoses and provide more educational training to the emergency medical service which prevent more deaths. Though I concede that prevention of the deaths made some disparate, I still insist that preventing more people introduced into the drug world could be the real difference. After all investing in programs that maintain people focus on a positive target for instance studying and working, which prevents the problem from the beginning. 

In an effort to stop the overdose crisis, authorities have made law to protect individuals seeking and receiving treatment. As the US constitution allows equal opportunity to the residents, on May 15, 2018 the US Senate introduced the Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act. Basically, Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act is a federal confidentiality law and regulations that protect patients with substance use disorder. In fact, the Act give some confidence to those who want to stop using drugs.

Here many wealthy people would probably object that overdose should not be treated as crisis because substance use disorder is an election. In my opinion, no one is exempt from the problem. I live in the East Bronx, which is not exempt from that crisis, but I have to move everyday to the South Bronx and  my kids are socializing with other from everywhere. What I understand is that making the community drug free make my family more safe. Also, if the government spends money making my community more safe that is fair and value to the taxpayers.