Ep. 125: A medical heroin model that's working
Guest: Eugenia Oviedto-Joekes, Crosstown Clinic
Can you treat heroin addicts with more heroin?
Eugenia Oviedto-Joekes leads a team of researchers to look into this. They ran the NAOMI and SALOME clinical trials on the effectiveness of providing chronic heroin addicts with medical heroin or hydromorphone. The trails generated positive results and lead to the creation of Crosstown Clinic.
Crosstown is funded and operated by Providence Health Care – because it's working. Oviedto-Jones points out that injectable heroin is one tiny part of what the clinic offers. "The most important part is the building of relationships and re-establishing a way of caring for people, which is something we have not done for more than 30 years."