Mental health counselor Erin McGann “shot up” with Narcan at a recent Rotary meeting to demonstrate how someone can use a small vial of nasal spray to rapidly reverse the effects of a life-threatening opioid emergency.
“It only takes two seconds to save a life,” McGann said, as she gave out boxes of Narcan, the brand name for naloxone, at the Oct. 10 breakfast meeting of the South Berwick-Eliot Rotary Club.
Each two-dose box included cards listing the signs of an overdose and instructions to immediately call 911 as well as administer Narcan.
One of 30 mental health counselors embedded in police departments throughout Maine, McGann said their mission is to save lives and calm crises.
A former patrol officer with over 20 years’ experience in crisis management, McGann began working with the South Berwick department and several others in southern York County last December.
In a recent interview, Police Chief David Ruger said officers rely on her ability to defuse stressful situations. “Officers come back after a call with her amazed at her skills to calm a situation,” said Ruger.
An officer may ask her to come on a call if it involves mental health issues, McGann said, or she may respond on her own, depending on circumstances. Although not a therapist, she has direct access to therapists and other service providers, and can help connect people.
When McGann recently worked with the York County sheriff for the first time, he seemed surprised with the program’s effectiveness, she said. “Damn, this actually works,” he told her.
McGann can be called in by town residents if they think someone in their household may need help, she told Rotarians.
“If a family member is not doing well, going through deep depression, a mental illness episode, call me,” she said. “I’m at the department from nine to five, Monday through Friday and I often answer calls outside that time.”
McGann distributed magnets to Rotarians highlighting the new nationwide suicide and crisis phone number that allows police to locate a person.
“If you call 988 with a mental health crisis from South Berwick, there is a great chance I will show up. You or they can call me directly and I will absolutely show up,” said McGann. “It doesn’t have to be a crisis. I can come to the home, or the library or any place they choose. We can help.”
McGann and the other counselors working with police departments statewide are part of a liaison program through Sweetser, a non-profit mental health agency based in Saco. Their salaries are paid by opioid industry settlement funds.
The program, free to police departments, is administered by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and disbursed through Maine’s Office of Behavioral Health.
Between 2022 and 2038, Maine will receive an estimated $235.5 million from national opioid settlements with drug distributors, pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacies. Some of that money funds the Sweetser liaisons specifically to connect people with overdose prevention resources.
A variety of tools and supplies in McGann’s office in the police station are available free to community members, including Deterra packets for safely discarding old drugs without environmental harm.
She also has locking drug bags and boxes that can deter people planning to kill themselves because they have to figure out a way to open the box, giving them time to rethink what they are doing.
Referencing a recent state report, McGann said the use of Narcan has helped reduce the number of fatal overdoses in Maine. In 2023, the stat e experienced 9,654 overdoses and 607 deaths from overdoses, a 16% decrease from 2022.
Gov. Janet Mills’ office attributed the decrease to the “expanding availability and distribution of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone; strengthening drug prevention initiatives in communities and schools; and increasing the number of treatment beds across the state, among other strategies.”
McGann, after harmlessly delivering a dose of Narcan to herself in a demonstration to the Rotarians, explained that the drug, which costs $100 at a pharmacy, works by blocking opioid receptors in the brain.
All South Berwick police officers carry Narcan in their vehicles and often carry it with them when they leave the vehicle, she said. The drug is also available free to residents from the Police Department.
“If you know individuals who are opioid users, give them Narcan,” McGann said. “If it’s on their person, someone can find it, use it, and save their life.”
