Pressing Foundations to Fight Opioid Abuse

Soon after Claire Fiddian-Green took the helm at the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation in 2015, the Indianapolis philanthropy’s research revealed that its city’s overall health was abysmal. One of the root causes: misuse of opioids.

A longtime grant maker in the areas of health and education, Fairbanks jumped into the fight to stem opioid abuse, with Ms. Fiddian-Green urging philanthropy — which has been criticized for its slow response — to help tackle the epidemic.

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The crisis unfolds daily at the nearby Eskenazi Hospital, where overdose victims revived by naloxone are treated. Until recently, doctors would check the vitals of patients, monitor them for a few hours, and then release them with information about addiction treatment. Patients would often overdose again later, the lucky ones returning to the emergency room.

Now, with a $700,000 grant from Fairbanks, first responders, emergency-room personnel, and mental-health providers work together to change the grim pattern.

Team members talk with overdose patients about recovery options. Counselors help them find a treatment center and fill out insurance paperwork. If patients aren’t ready for treatment, team members offer hepatitis C testing and give them a naloxone kit and train them how to use it.

“The theory is that when they’ve almost died, they’re in this moment of vulnerability,” Ms. Fiddian-Green says. “You can actually connect them to the help that they need.”

In September 2016, Fairbanks invited every foundation in Indiana, along with government and business officials, to a meeting to discuss the crisis in the state and share what foundations nationwide are doing. The resulting Indiana Funders Collaborative now meets quarterly so organizations can learn from each other.

Progress will take collaboration among government, business, and the nonprofit world, with each playing to its strength, says Ms. Fiddian-Green. “Foundations have a longer time horizon. They’re not elected officials, so they don’t have a time-limited, prescribed term.”