‘You’re saving people’: City gives more to group helping people who overdose on opioids

Safe Streets Wichita, the organization that has distributed some 3,500 naloxone kits at opioid overdose hotspots across the city, will be able to purchase another 4,000 kits.

The Wichita City Council on Tuesday approved $4,300 from the city’s opioid settlement recovery fund for Safe Streets. The council also allocated $20,675 for the program in January, of which the organization still has $3,850 to put toward more kits.

Safe Streets reports that at least 8.8% of the kits — or approximately 308 — distributed so far have been used to address overdoses through injections.

“That’s probably under-reported because we know that not everyone who uses a kit is going to contact us and let us know,” Safe Streets Coalition Chair Lisa Vayda said Tuesday.

The Federal Drug Administration has announced that by late summer 2023, naloxone nasal spray will be made available over the counter at pharmacies, big box stores and gas stations.

Safe Streets has said the fewer than 500 remaining kits in their inventory will not last through September. In March alone, 1,600 kits were distributed at community events — nearly twice what was expected. Another event at Lincoln and Oliver will be held in either late May or early June.

“I just want to also take a moment to thank you all,” Mayor Brandon Whipple told Safe Streets representatives before the vote. “You’re doing more than just helping people. You’re saving people. The data speaks for itself.”

City Manager Robert Layton said Safe Streets used geospatial data through the Overdose Detention Mapping Program to identify and provide outreach at overdose hotspots along the Broadway corridor and west Kellogg.

He said the city has prepared a request for proposals to put together a strategic plan on how best to use opioid settlement funds Wichita receives through the Kansas Fights Addiction Act Grant, a $340 million fund established when Kansas reached settlements with multiple major pharmaceutical companies.

“We are hoping to partner with Sedgwick County in the issuance of that RFP so we can coordinate the use of our settlement funds,” Layton said.

Safe Streets can by contacted by phone at 316-263-1389 and on Facebook.

This story was originally published May 9, 2023 at 11:52 AM.