- OASAS really oversees all addiction services in New York State.

(soft music) We oversee prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery services.

We certify these programs, we regulate programs.

We provide training and technical assistance and support.

So we're really responsible for overseeing the whole continuum of services for addiction.

New York is not immune to what's happening across the entire country, and we see overdose deaths in all parts of the state.

So we have to follow the data, right?

And so how many people are dying?

Who's dying?

What are they dying of?

And so we have to make sure that we're reaching those populations that are at the highest risk.

We also know that people who are dying at the highest rates are Black people and Hispanic people and indigenous people.

One of the, you know, biggest strategies that we're using and really embracing is harm reduction.

Harm reduction is an approach and a set of strategies that really focus on reducing negative consequences of substance use.

So we have to keep people alive, right?

That's the primary purpose here, because obviously if people are not alive, then there's not anything else that we can do for them.

Making sure that people have naloxone, making sure that we have fentanyl test strips and xylazine test strips.

Harm reduction also includes bringing services to where people are.

So not waiting for people to come to us, but going and doing outreach.

We know that, you know, among those people who need treatment, only about 20% of people actually get treatment.

One of the medications that is more effective now than ever is methadone.

And so we are expanding access to methadone.

We're using mobile units to go out into parts of the community that don't have a brick and mortar program that can provide methadone.

You know, we've invested over $6 million in mobile units so that the actual mobile unit can be purchased.

It has to be outfitted for methadone treatment.

There's a lot of federal regulations around that that have to be met.

We help sort of broker the relationships with the federal agencies and with the local providers.

So we're really there to help facilitate and provide support for the treatment.

We really have to just see this as a public health emergency.

This is a medical condition that has effective medical treatment, and we have to make sure that it's okay for people to identify as having an addiction and to seek treatment and services.

Because treatment works, it works, and we have effective treatment.

And so it's about making sure that people know that it's available, making sure that we provide the access, easy access, you know, to effective treatment so that we can match the needs of New Yorkers with the services that we have.

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