Fight for Benson
Supporters
rally to save
school sports
See Local News, page 3
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVI • Number 27
Connecting
to the River
Canoe paddles
focus on the
environment
See Metro, page 9
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • July 5, 2017
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Photo by Z aChary S enn /t he P ortland o bServer
O’Nesha Cochran prepares for her shift as a peer-recovery counselor to those suffering from opioid addiction at the Oregon Health and Science University’s Marquam
Hill campus in southwest Portland.
On the Front Lines
Peer-recovery counselors
battle opioid epidemic
by Z aChary S enn
t he P ortland o bServer
A unique, collaborative approach to addiction care at
Oregon Health and Science University is helping to tackle
the opioid epidemic.
As the struggle against heroine and the abuse of pre-
scription opiates continues to escalate across America,
Northwestern states such as Oregon, Washington and
Alaska have been hit especially hard by drug overdose
deaths and related hospitalizations.
Dr. Honora Englander, who serves as an associate pro-
fessor of medicine at OHSU, first began to notice the in-
flux of hospitalizations caused by complications from opi-
oid addiction while working in the school’s hospital. More
patients, for example, were being hospitalized after ex-
periencing an overdose, being diagnosed with Substance
Abuse Disorder, or from contracting a blood or bone infec-
tion from using impure substances or improperly sterilized
equipment
“As a health system and hospital, we were very well
positioned to manage people’s medical needs and surgical
needs,” Englander told the Portland Observer, “But really
did not have any systems to support their addiction needs.”
By assessing the unique needs presented by the opioid
epidemic in the Portland area, Englander and her col-
leagues developed the framework for what is now the Im-
proving Addiction Care Team, or Project IMPACT. The
C ontinued on P age 4