I actually was not going to go public because I did not want to deter people from using overdose prevention hotlines because when run correctly and with proper training, they are the link that transitions a fatal overdose into a non-fatal overdose.  However, being that I wholeheartedly believe in harm reduction I do need to warn those who use one in particular overdose prevention hotline.  Harm reduction is doing everything in your power to reduce the risk of harm.  This post is to encourage anyone using a substance that the government deems illegal to either have a physical spotter or use the Brave App or call Safespot, always test your supply ( ←- I can't stress this one enough), always have naltrexone on hand, and always start low and go slow.  

“Never Use Alone” I must admit it has such a catchy ring to it!  I was so disillusioned by the name that it clouded my judgment and within the first thirty days of volunteering with this organization I was volunteering seven days a week on top of a forty-hour work week.  I put the callers first and acted swiftly when I thought a caller was heading into a bad place and called for Emergency Services.  Behind the facade that the organization is known as a national overdose prevention, detection, life-saving crisis response and medical intervention hotline.  This sadly could not be further from the truth.

There is absolutely no anonymity.  As operators we were told in our “bullshit” training to take down the callers, name, address, telephone number, and what substance they were using.  Then we were told to put it in a notebook or on index cards and keep it in case the caller calls back in again.  We never ask for the caller's permission to keep their information.  The operators are abusive towards each other and towards the callers.  They have made several callers feel bad that they were using.  I do believe in anonymity, so I will not reveal their names, who were given only several minutes on the phone after their last hit of inhaling fentanyl.  Just look at the facebook post on April 28th, followers were outraged that NUA wanted to start time capping calls.  This just shows they are not “caller driven”, they have operators trying to convert people from using into following their way to “sobriety”.  Another trauma dumped all her baggage about her son who passed away due to taking a lethal dose of fentanyl.  And my heart goes out to her, it really does, I have lost loved ones for the same reason.  However, these callers just want to do their thing and be on their way.  They do not need an operator who is telling them about their son who is their age overdosing and dying.  It is as if this operator jinxed it and the same night, the same caller called in and of course he overdosed and the operator, who is a mandated reporter (which Mike Brown the Founder of Never Use Alone had no clue she was one) had to call EMS for him. 

The organization has twelve volunteers at best.  Mike Brown the founder prides himself on this notion that we are run solely on volunteers.  That's a great concept except the lack of leadership is astounding and volunteers are not meant to run an organization the founder is.  Volunteer operators are told that they are allowed to use substances but not to take calls because you do not want to place the caller in jeopardy.  Well listening to the recordings of calls several operators have nodded off on callers.  This is extremely dangerous when we are supposed to be telephonically monitoring them for signs of an overdose.  Sadly, another operator gave a caller her personal cell phone number and when she was on her own private phone, she asked the caller for money because she was sick and needed to get well.  FYI the founder knew about all of this and it took him several weeks to act on it.  On a recorded call the caller states he is smoking and while he is preparing his pipe you can hear the operator snorting something:

Operator: You’re done smoking now right? (Clearly annoyed)

Caller: Yea that’s all I guess. Wait! I have a little more.

Operator: Okay yea buddy because after this you are going to have to call again and get a new operator. (Snorts something) 

Caller: I’m confused so do I call this phone number again or I don’t call this number again? (He is high and doesn’t understand why he is being thrown off the phone)

Operator: Yea, yea you call this line.  Do you get what I mean?  (Snorts Something Again) You don’t have to hang up right now, but it is a rule of ours with smoking we have to cut you off from smoking because we can’t just sit on a call.

While volunteering is providing service to an organization knowing that you will not be paid, asking a volunteer to give up their time seven days a week is actually offensive.  This just means that the founder does not care about the mental well being of their organization.  The only position that anyone can apply for is to be a “volunteer operator” yet we all had additional roles that were thrown at us, such as: running the telephonic routing system, interviewing volunteers, proving an hour long training several days a week to new volunteers, running the organizations social media accounts, and the list goes on.  All of the operators were given access to the telephonic routing system and in a text message sent by Mr. Brown we were given a tutorial by the telephonic routing system and not by him.  There were absolutely no rules set by him in writing so when one of the operators missed a call and feared getting yelled at by Mike Brown they called the caller back leaving a message.  Hey it’s _(blank)_ give me a call back.  Never outing the organization and never being told that you cannot return calls by the end of that evening the operator was told in a group text not even in a phone call privately that she was no longer needed.

For a while Mike was running his operators into the ground and for a while they took it but eventually they all went on their way.  Now he can barely retain them for two weeks, sometimes two hours.  He was offered the opportunity to have an outside group come in and train volunteers and explain volunteer burnout which was met with outrage by Mr. Brown.  He swears he created this whole phone line “spotting service” but there are other organizations that were started prior to 2019.  According to Brave’s website, “Mid-2016 Gordon Casey left his career in offshore hedge funds and moved his family to Vancouver, BC. He met some smart folks who were passionate about solving the housing and overdose crisis. And he was introduced to the principles of Harm Reduction.  December 2016 Gordon Casey launches Brave.” Story (brave.coop)

He lies to his volunteers and he lies to outsiders on a daily basis.  In February he told all of his volunteers that in the next few weeks they will be getting paid for donating so much of their time.  However, he never even attempted to get grant funding.  He told operators that if they need space after an overdose, call to take all the time they need.  Except after I did ask for a few days away after a troublesome overdose call I received a text, “I have no one on can you take calls for a little while.”  My eyes watered up with tears.  Harm reduction which I was so passionate about became something I now dreaded.  I no longer wanted to hear the phone ring.  I told him repeatedly that I was burning out but he was persistent so I finally snapped back “Fine but I am showering, and I am going to do that alone so if a call comes in when I am showering it will go unanswered.”

With the shit I have seen and heard, if I was using, I guess I would call Never Use Alone as a LAST RESORT.  They do have like two solid operators, “TJ” and “Joey” ← those two are great but Brave (which uses an app) and Safespot 800 972 0590.  By all means if you call Safespot or talk to a supporter on the Brave App (These two would be my go-to) these are the safest ways to go in order to try to reduce harm.  However, Safespot and The Brave App kinda set the bar with providing their supporters/operators with ever growing and changing training.  Never Use Alone needs to catch up. The way the government gave OnPoint ground rules on how to run an OPC (Overdose Prevention Centers) perhaps services like this too should be regulated.  Maybe there should be a standard of quality like mandatory introductory and updated trainings.  Maybe employees and/or volunteers should never be allowed to solicit the callers for money.  Maybe only the operator should answer and not their four-year-old child.  Perhaps a stipend would be nice since volunteers are put through an extreme level of trauma.  Actually pay for Volunteer Management software.