When asked the significance of visiting the Norwood area for a second time in nine months, Herbert Quinones, an overdose prevention trainer for the city Health Department, responds with a friendly attitude.  “When we’re invited to speak, we go anywhere,” Quinones said before listing the five boroughs.

Quinones has just wrapped up a 45-minute slideshow presentation interspersed with questions from the audience at the Opioid Overdose Education Narcan Training Event held at North Central Bronx Hospital (NCBH) on Jan. 10.

The event was organized by State Senators Gustavo Rivera and Jamaal T. Bailey, Community Board 7 (CB7), and the Jerome Gun Hill Business Improvement District in partnership with NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central.

It comes at a time when the Bronx saw an uptick in fatal overdoses even as parts of the city experienced a decline.

As an overdose prevention trainer for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), Quinones not only visits hospitals, but libraries, community group meetings, civic organizations, and any group that wants to learn how to administer the nasal spray naloxone—commonly known by its brand name, Narcan—to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

The term opioid covers a broad range of drugs, including pain relievers, prescription painkillers, heroin, and fentanyl—a synthesized painkiller 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

New Yorkers who are not medical professionals are protected under a state law allowing them to administer the medication to an opioid overdose victim.

Every presentation Quinones gives ends with a sign-up process where attendees can leave with a zippered pouch containing two Narcan nasal sprays, gloves, alcohol wipes, a rescue-breathing face shield, and a blue card authorizing the individual as a certified opioid overdose responder.

From 2010 to 2017, overdose deaths—officially categorized by the city as unintentional drug deaths—rose from 541 to 1482.  There was a slight drop to 1444 in 2018, the last year for which data is available.  The Bronx also led all boroughs with 391 drug overdose deaths in 2018.

Not all overdose deaths involve opioids but in 2018 city health officials estimated that opioids were found in 80 percent of victims.

Dr. Frederick W. Nagel sees the destructive effects of the opioid crises on a daily basis. As chief of emergency services at NCBH he knows that Norwood, which falls within the 10467 zip code, has been especially hit hard with opioid overdoses.

“The 10467 [zip code] is fourth out of all the neighborhoods in New York City… for overdose deaths, so it is a hyperlocal issue,” Dr. Nagel said.

NCBH has been registered since 2015 with an overdose prevention program but the training event is the first time they have hosted a public event in overdose education with Narcan training, according to Dr. Nagel.

He is hopeful that through additional training sessions and increased education, more lives can be saved and the lower rate of overdose deaths seen in 2018 will be reflected in updated data.

“Everyone has a story about someone they care about affected by substance abuse and there’s no shame in that,” he said.  “It’s a chronic illness and we need to appreciate that it’s a manageable disease.  The medical establishment and the community need to look at it without judgement.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.