Night Navigator pilot program offers help to San Francisco fentanyl users

By Itay Hod | September 17, 2024 / 7:06 AM PDT / CBS San Francisco

A pilot program launched in San Francisco earlier this year is providing outreach to help fentanyl users on the city's streets.

The city's struggle with the opioid crisis is a major point of concern for voters ahead of this November's mayoral election. Last year, the number of overdose deaths in San Francisco topped 800.

On a bone-chilling night in the Tenderloin, some of San Francisco's most vulnerable gather near the main public library. 

The area is the epicenter of San Francisco's drug crisis, which has worsened since 2018 when Fentanyl -- a synthetic opioid up to 50 times more potent than heroin -- began taking hold here. 

Efforts to provide aid have had mixed results. But on this night, Douglas Liu is hoping to change that. 

"Addiction is real out here. Fentanyl is a different animal," Liu explained.  

Liu is part of San Francisco's Night Navigation team, a pilot program spearheaded by the city's Public Health Department. 

Liu and his team offer medications that can help people get off drugs. Instead of sending them to a remote clinic during business hours, Liu bring the clinic to them.  

Through a tele-health consultation with a doctor, people can get a prescription for a drug called buprenorphine, a synthetic opioid that helps treat addiction. They can also get a bed at a nearby hotel where they can begin treatment. No red tape and no lines' all they have to do is say, "Yes." 

Dr. Christy Soran with the SFDPH said that since the program began in March, the agency has facilitated more than 1,000 consultations. About 85% of them started treatment. 

"It's really coming to meet demand at hours of the day and places in the city where there isn't treatment readily available," she said. 

29-year-old Anthony, who asked us not to use his last name, was addicted to painkillers and heroin. But when he tried fentanyl for the first time, everything fell apart. 

"It's a dangerous game you don't want to play with," he said. "I lost my family, I lost my housing, I lost my car."

The Night Navigation team offers him room at a nearby hotel, where he can get back on his feet. When CBS News Bay Area met Anthony the following morning, nurse practitioner Taylor Cuffaro was checking up on him. 

Cuffaro said the hotel has been nothing short of a game changer. 

"There's a place where you can comfortably sleep and experience withdrawal symptoms, there's a staff, a whole group of people here who are here to take care of you," Cuffaro said.

The program is still facing challenges. It only has one doctor on call on most nights, and only 20 beds at the hotel. 

For Anthony, it meant getting his first good night's sleep in days. 

"I'm very hopeful," he said.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/night-navigator-pilot-program-offers-help-to-san-francisco-fentanyl-users/