Several faculty and affiliates of the Yale Department of Psychiatry are serving on a task force that will assess the City of New Haven’s handling of an opioid crisis in August and make recommendations to prevent future public health emergencies.
The New Haven Opioid Response Work Group formed in the fall after more than 100 people overdosed after taking the synthetic drug K2 on and around the New Haven Green on Aug. 15. The group is co-chaired by New Haven Mayor Toni Harp and Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, PhD, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine.
Others from the Yale Department of Psychiatry and Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC) serving on the group include Jeanne Steiner, DO, Associate Professor of Psychiatry; Robert Cole, MHSA, Lecturer in Psychiatry and Chief Operating Officer of CMHC; Michael Rowe, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Co-Director of the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health; Emma Lo, MD, fourth-year resident; and Kyle Pedersen, MAR, Director of the CMHC Foundation.
Among the proposals discussed by the committee is development of a “street psychiatry” program particularly in the area of the New Haven Green, where most of the overdoses occurred. The majority of people treated that day were homeless or low-income.
Lo is taking the lead on the initiative. “Street psychiatry just means doing psychiatry literally on the streets. Providing consultation, triage evaluations, and medication management to homeless folks where they reside," she said. "Because I go out to the streets, the Green being one of the sites, to do medical outreach and provide psychiatric care, they involved me for a perspective on the ground."
Lo began to develop a street psychiatry program two years ago during her second year of residency and is now doing it as an official rotation through the department’s public psychiatry fellowship. She spends two half-days a week doing outreach in the city in partnership with organizations like CMHC, Hill Health Center, and Columbus House.
Her interest in street medicine began when she worked at a program that served the medical needs of homeless people in Pittsburgh and then in Rochester, where she went to medical school.
“When I came to Yale I noticed a gap in services due to the fact that many homeless people lack true access to care,” she said. “While they may have insurance, there are many social barriers related to stigma and even simple logistics that prevent them from keeping appointments at traditional clinics.”
Lo will graduate from residency in June and will join the full-time faculty. The main focus of her clinical work will be street psychiatry.