This is the last episode of Season 2. For people addicted to heroin and other drugs, how do we keep them safe and prevent them from overdosing? We look at the idea of harm reduction and focus specifically on needle exchanges. Those are hundreds

Helping family members of people with addiction

Nov 26th, 2019 30m 42s

Addiction is a family disease and family members of people with addiction need help, too. Research shows that helping family members helps their loved one who has an addiction. We look at an approach that is more effective than an intervention

Treating addiction from the ER

Nov 19th, 2019 28m 5s

Emergency rooms are the last safety net for the sickest, most marginalized people. People with addiction often end up in emergency departments following an overdose, during withdrawal, or with other health problems. A new approach is linking pe

Treating the wounds of trauma

Nov 12th, 2019 32m 36s

Trauma and pain and addiction are tightly woven together. But, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is treatable and treating the wounds of trauma can help treat pain and addiction, too. We must pay attention to the toxic effects of trauma if

Medical Marijuana for Chronic Pain

Nov 5th, 2019 24m 50s

Medical marijuana is now legal in dozens of states. Some chronic pain patients now rely on it in place of opioid painkillers. But, in the absence of formal medical guidance, many patients are going it on their own, with informal guidance from t

Treating Chronic Pain

Oct 29th, 2019 29m 56s

What's the appropriate role of opioids in treating chronic pain? For years doctors have used opioid painkillers as the go-to solution for all kinds of pain. Now that U.S. society is saturated with these pills and so many people are dying of ove

S2 EP2 Treating Acute Pain

Oct 22nd, 2019 19m 4s

SOLUTION: The more opioids you get after surgery, the more likely you are to be dependent on them down the road. And it doesn't take very long to become dependent on opioids – days to weeks. The solution Washington State and others have enacted

Treating Acute Pain To Prevent Opioid Dependence

Oct 22nd, 2019 19m 4s

Preventing Youth Addiction

Oct 15th, 2019 29m 59s

SOLUTION: The best ways to prevent young people from getting addicted don’t necessarily focus on the drugs themselves (forget “Just say no.”) Research shows the more young people are surrounded by risky environments, including stress, poverty,

Bonus

Why make a podcast about the opioid epidemic?

Jul 23rd, 2019 11m 22s

Our team is hard at work on Season Two, which drops fall 2019, but in the meantime we wanted to answer a question a lot of people ask us: Why are we making this podcast? Why make a podcast about solutions to the opioid epidemic? On this bonus e

Bonus

BONUS: Why are we making this podcast?

Jul 23rd, 2019 11m 22s

Bonus

BONUS: How Shannon got off drugs

Mar 22nd, 2019 15m 40s

For Shannon McCarty, two things were crucial in her recovery: connections and timing. It started with timing – a key encounter just when she wanted to get off the drugs. And then it was the connections that kept her going. A police officer she

The jail turns things around

Sep 17th, 2018 28m 34s

SOLUTION: Make incarceration an opportunity to get help and start healing. Make detox easier, get people with addiction drug treatment behind bars, and connect them to help as soon as they’re released. STORY: Opioid withdrawal is like the worst

Professional hand-holders

Sep 17th, 2018 30m 8s

SOLUTION: Create teams of social workers and police officers who help homeless people with addiction get drug treatment and housing. Break the cycle of drug use, crime, and jail time by reaching out to people on the streets and in the woods, an

Valuable lessons from a landslide

Sep 17th, 2018 26m 40s

SOLUTION: Get government to work more effectively. Use a disaster response playbook to organize county government around the opioid epidemic. Approach addicted people with compassion, as you’d approach a person with any other medical condition.

Bonus

Instructions on how to spot and stop an overdose

Sep 17th, 2018

Download instructions on how to recognize the signs of an overdose and administer Narcan to stop it. Drawn by Julia Drachman.

A lifesaving nasal-spray

Sep 17th, 2018 23m 52s

SOLUTION: Get the overdose reversal drug, naloxone (aka Narcan) into the hands of everyone who needs it, and train them how to use it. Family, friends and people with addiction themselves can play a big role in stopping overdose death. STORY: A

Medicine that melts under your tongue

Sep 17th, 2018 25m 32s

SOLUTION: Treat addiction using evidence-based medication, like buprenorphine (aka Suboxone). Expand access to treatment through telemedicine. STORY: At a clinic in Everett, Washington, a nurse pushes his patients to work hard, and the patients

Trailer

Preview

Aug 31st, 2018 2m 9s

Finding Fixes is the first podcast dedicated to solutions to the opioid epidemic. Each episode we dive into one solution. The first season we're in Snohomish County, Washington, which is treating the opioid epidemic as a state of emergency lik

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