SPARROw
In this project, we are evaluating two City efforts taking place in Kensington, the neighborhood with the city’s highest overdose rate and high rates of poverty, homelessness, and dilapidated neighborhood conditions. Experiencing an overdose often brings people who use opioids into contact with healthcare providers and represents an opportunity to improve outcomes through harm reduction and care linkage. The Alternative Response Unit (AR2) aims to close this gap by engaging people who use opioids at the time and place of their overdose. The AR2 responds to all 911 calls for overdose and if the patient does not want to go with traditional EMS to the hospital, AR2 is able to connect the patient directly to treatment services.
Dilapidated neighborhood conditions are associated with drug sales, substance use, and morbidity. The city is focusing remediation efforts in Kensington, including abatement of vacant lots and cleaning and sealing of abandoned houses. SPARROw studies the impact of these interventions on opioid overdose outcomes.
PI: Eugenia C. South, MD MS and Zachary Meisel, MD, MS
Partners: Philadelphia Fire Department, Philadelphia Health Department, Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Managing Directors Office