Members of the state’s Behavioral Health Consortium handed out free Narcan Wednesday in Wilmington’s West Center City neighborhood.
This marks the third time members of the consortium have hit the streets over the past month to distribute the antidote for opioid overdoses. They also visited a homeless encampment in Wilmington and an area near Downtown Dover.
Jordan Sessoms is a high school student in Wilmington. She received some Narcan Wednesday while she was sitting on a stoop in West Center City.
“It’s really appreciated because a lot of these people need it. There’s too many overdoses out here, for real,” said Sessoms.
Members of the consortium also handed out pamphlets for addiction treatment.
Saad Soliman is Executive Director of a social services agency called Peace by Piece and a consortium member. He went along to hand out brochures to try to help connect people looking to get back into the workforce.
“If you need to know how to do it, if you need to know what steps need to be taken to get from where you’re at to where you want to be, we can help you,” said Soliman.
The Narcan was supplied by Brandywine Counselling.
After the day’s supply was given out, Brandywine’s Wellness Care Advocate Holly Rybinski continued to notice people in the street who could’ve used some.
“Everyday someone dies that I know or I may have been associated with, and there’s so many people who need it, and there’s so much stigma attached to it, and it’s just sad,” said Rybinski.
Most of the day’s Narcan went to people in West Center City and the rest was left at the RVRC homeless shelter after an instructional course for residents on how to use it.
