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For the past 24 years,
I have been a firefighter

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in Huntington, West Virginia.

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As firefighters, my team and I
are tasked with saving lives

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and property

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from such disasters
as car wrecks, house fires

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and also life-threatening
medical emergencies.

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I am a woman leading a department
in a male-dominated profession.

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And 10 years ago,

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I decided to increase my medical knowledge
and I received a nursing degree.

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That was because it became clear

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that the next big threat
facing not only my city,

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but other cities around the country,

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was not the one-and-done disaster,

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where you can ride in
like the cavalry, as a firefighter,

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put out the fire and leave,
feeling like you have made a difference

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and everything is OK.

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The next big disaster in my city
was and is the long, debilitating

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and lethal disaster
known as opioid addiction.

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We now call this a health epidemic,

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and we have replaced the name "addiction"
with "substance use disorder."

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To give you some perspective

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of how significant
this epidemic has become,

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in 2017, in my county of 95,000 people,

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we saw 1,831 overdoses

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[and] 183 deaths from overdose.

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This is the job of my firefighters,
as well as other agencies,

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to respond to that.

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(Coughs)

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Excuse me.

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So, watching this epidemic
unfold for several years,

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I developed some insight.

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For this disaster, we need to redefine
our job as a first responder.

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We need to be more than just the cavalry.

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We need to do more than just save a life.

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We need to find ways to rebuild that life.

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And it's going to take
a lot of people to do that.

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And that is exactly
what we are trying to do

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in Huntington, West Virginia.

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Now, let me give you some insight
as to what we do.

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First, this is what happens
when somebody overdoses.

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Imagine you are somebody who is suffering
from the brain disorder of addiction.

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You are fragile.

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You're embarrassed, you're ashamed.

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And you overdose.

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Maybe a friend
or a family member calls 911.

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And then all of a sudden,

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you are awakened by five or six
total strangers in uniform.

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And they're rubbing your sternum,

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and they're saying, "Wake up, wake up!

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You overdosed, you could've died."

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Now, would you not be defensive and angry?

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Because I know I would be.

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And on top of that,

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those strangers gave you
a dose of naloxone,

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which has sent you into withdrawals,

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or what is better known
as "dope sickness."

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Dope sickness makes you feel
absolutely horrible.

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Some say it's like the flu, times ten.

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Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, body aches.

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So not only did we,
as strangers, wake you up,

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but we also made you feel really sick.

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So in turn, you, the patient,
are not going to be very kind to us.

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And you're going to refuse
further medical treatment.

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OK, well, then that's going to frustrate
the heck out of us,

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and we're going to be mad,

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because you're ungrateful
that we just saved your life.

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This is not a good dynamic here.

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What we are dealing with
is a brain disorder

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that changes your thinking.

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It convinces you
that you don't have a problem.

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So, this might have been not only
the first time you've overdosed,

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it might have been the third,
fourth or fifth time

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that we, personally, have revived you.

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This is not a good situation.

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Second,

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first responders do not receive
much education

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on what substance use disorder is.

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Neither does the medical community.

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We're not trained how to deal with those
suffering from substance use disorder.

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I am trained to put out
many different types of fires.

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I am trained to save a life in the moment.

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But I am not trained to deal
with the intricate interaction

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between first responders,
the health care community,

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social services

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and the wider community that is necessary
to save a life long-term.

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Thirdly,

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and this hits home.

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As a first responder,
I consider myself the cavalry.

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We're knights in shining armor.

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We want to swoop in, do our job
and leave feeling satisfied

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that we've made a difference
in somebody's life.

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But that just doesn't happen

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when we're dealing with somebody
with substance use disorder.

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We leave feeling frustrated and useless.

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We deal with the same people
over and over again,

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with no positive outcome.

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And you know what?

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At some point, I realized
that it is up to us as first responders

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and as a community

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to solve this problem,

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to find better ways to deal
with those that are suffering.

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So what I did is I started
observing more on overdoses.

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I started talking
and listening to my patients.

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I wanted to know
what led them to where they are.

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What exactly are they experiencing?

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What makes their situation worse?

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What makes their situation better?

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I began experimenting with my words

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and paying attention to my own actions

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and how it affected those of my patients.

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The education that I have received

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and continue to receive
on a street level in Huntington

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has been both eye-opening
and life-changing for me.

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So, in Huntington, West Virginia,
we have come together as a community,

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and we are changing the way that we treat

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those that suffer
from this horrible disease.

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We have started many programs,
and it's making a difference.

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I'll tell you about just a few of those.

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Last year, we started
a Quick Response Team,

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QRT for short.

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The team consists of a paramedic,

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a police officer,

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somebody in the recovery community
and somebody in the faith community.

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As a team, they go out
and visit people who have overdosed

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within 72 hours of that resuscitation.

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They talk.

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They listen.

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They build a rapport with that patient,

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and they offer them treatment options.

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Right now, about 30 percent
or up to 30 percent

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of those that the Quick Response Team
have reached out to

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have accepted some form of help.

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And the wonderful thing about this

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is the first responders
who are involved in this team,

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they actually feel
like they can make a difference.

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Positive change where there wasn't any.

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This year --

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(Applause)

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This year, we opened a free-standing
specialty clinic, called PROACT,

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for those suffering
from substance use disorder.

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It's a one-stop shop, if you will.

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A patient comes in,

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they're immediately assessed
by somebody who's an addiction specialist.

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They work with them
to provide treatment options

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based on their own needs,
individual needs.

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This does several things for us.

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It gives first responders a place
to either take or refer our patients

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who are no longer
in a life-threatening situation,

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that have refused to go to the hospital.

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And it also clears up

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the overwhelmed emergency rooms
in hospitals that we have.

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The third thing
that I want to tell you about

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is very dear to me
and very important to my team.

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We recently started
a first responders self-care program.

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More and more ...

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first responders are experiencing
compassion fatigue and PTSD.

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It is not uncommon for the average
firefighter in Huntington

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to deal with or see
up to five young deaths per month.

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These are their friends,
these are their classmates.

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So this much-needed program
will not only recognize their hard work,

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it's going to give them a voice.

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It's going to provide them with training

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that will help deal with the stress
that they are under.

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And it will give them
more mental-health options

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that they desperately need.

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We now have yoga classes in fire stations.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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We've also provided on-duty
massages, which is fabulous.

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(Laughter)

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And we have some off-duty programs
that we've started,

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like cooking classes for first responders
and their significant other

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and pottery classes.

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So a couple of months ago,

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I walked out on the apparatus floor,
where I had some firefighters.

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And half of them had had a massage,

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and the other half were getting
ready to have a massage.

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And I saw 10 firefighters
who were bantering

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in a very positive, relaxed manner.

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And I hadn't seen that in years.

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And that relaxed state is trickling down
to the community, to the citizens.

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So a couple of weeks ago,
I had a neighbor overdose.

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Twenty-two years old.

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So of course, I hurried down
to help my firefighters and my neighbor.

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And what I witnessed
was my firefighters being supportive.

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Talking in a non-judgmental way.

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I watched as one of my firefighters

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showed the father
and another family member

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how to provide rescue breaths,
should this happen again.

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And left him with a bag valve mask.

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Positive change.

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Positive change.

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Did I happen to mention

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the two things that firefighters
dislike the most?

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The way things are and change.

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(Laughter)

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You know, I recognize that there have been
drug epidemics before.

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And I've seen what crack
can do to a community.

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A lot of our critics think

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that this new compassionate response
that we're doing in Huntington

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is because of race.

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That because the overdoses are happening
so much to the white community.

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And I understand that criticism,

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because we as a country messed up.

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And we treated black people poorly
during the crack epidemic.

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We can't forget that.

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And we must do better.

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But right now, what I know
is people are dying.

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And we in Huntington deal with people
suffering from substance use disorder

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of every color and every background,
on the streets, every day.

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The job of a first responder:
prevent unnecessary deaths.

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Period.

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So ...

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Obviously, I'm a stubborn
firefighter and nurse.

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And I refuse to believe that there isn't
a way around every barrier.

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One of the barriers that we have

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dealing with the opioid
epidemic is stigma.

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So ...

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We in Huntington, West Virginia,
are showing the rest of the country

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that change can happen.

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That there is hope
dealing with this epidemic.

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Our current overdoses are down 40 percent.

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(Applause)

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Currently, our overdose deaths
are down 50 percent.

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(Applause)

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This epidemic is far from over.

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But each and every one of us
has a part to play in this epidemic.

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Just by listening
and being kind to somebody,

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you have the ability
to make a difference in their lives.

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Thank you and God bless.

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(Applause)