Action News Now spoke to Kelsey Larson, a navigator from Mercy Medical Mt. Shasta about how navigators connect people to treatment options, community resources, and long-term recovery support.
MT. SHASTA, Calif. – If you go to the hospital for an opioid overdose, doctors will work to save your life. But for many, it take a lot of long term care to truly get better.
That’s why Dignity Health has a team of 29 Substance Abuse Navigators, specialized workers statewide who visit with recovering patients to offer long-term recovery tools.
Action News Now spoke to a navigator from Mt. Shasta about how receptive patients are to the offer of help.
“If you have a conversation in a non judgmental way and you come and you’re very supportive, all these people that I’ve been interacting with have been seeming very open to treatment or whatever it is that they might need,” said Kelsey Larson, with Mercy Medical Center, Mt. Shasta. “I’ve been in this role for about 2 years, and I have had some positive experiences where I’ve had people come back and they’ve been clean, they’ve had the resources they needed, and they’re able to live a productive life, and we’re very grateful for the resources we’ve been able to provide.”
First, the hospital treats the acute health crisis, then these navigators step in to connect people to treatment options, community resources, and long-term recovery support.
In 2022, more than 7,285 Californians lost their lives to opioid overdoses. 6,473 of them specifically due to fentanyl.
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