Concerned Somerville residents gathered at Somerville High School last week for an opioid awareness event sponsored by the Ryan Harrington Foundation. — Photos by Douglas Yu

By Douglas Yu

Before the Ryan Harrington Foundation’s first opioid awareness event began at Somerville High School on June 3, Joann Riviecio stopped by the tables of 16 local health advocate organizations, and talked to people who were struggling with heroin overdose.

Riviecio wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for her son, Frank Riviecio, who tragically passed away six years ago.

“There was a bad storm when I got off work. When I went home from work, Frank was sleeping. Apparently, something bothered him that day,” Riviecio said. 10 years ago, Riviecio’s son was injured in a motorcycle accident. After the hospital prescribed him Oxycontin for treatment, he became addicted to it, and moved on to heroin about five months before he died.

Riviecio usually checked in on her son, but she didn’t that night. “One thing he told me is not to check up on him,” said Riviecio. “The next morning, I made breakfast and I went into his room, hoping to come up with a solution to his problems. It was too late. He was found dead in bed.”

Somerville Overcoming Addiction, a community action group that Riviecio is part of, was formed last year by local citizens and advocates in order to battle with the latest rash of overdoes-caused deaths.

Patty Contente, Clinical Youth Specialist for the city’s Health and Human Services Department, told The Somerville Times that the city witnessed a spike in heroin overdose deaths in 2014. “We know where it stems from: prescription misuse,” she said.

Cathy Harrington (right), Ryan Harrington’s mother, helped to established the foundation to raise awareness of opioid addiction issues.

Like Ryan Harrington and Frank Riviecio, they both developed their addiction by taking Oxycontin, a narcotic pain reliever that treats moderate to severe pain. According to drugs.com, Oxycontin may be habit-forming, even at regular doses. When Oxycontin becomes too expensive, these young addicts switch to cheaper alternatives, such as heroin.

The late Ryan Harrington’s mother, Cathy Harrington, gave a heart-rending speech in front of more than 600 local residents at the awareness night. She shared how her family struggled before Harrington passed away, and her sweet memories about what a caring young man Harrington once was.

“None of the kids want to be the way they are. Most of them are good kids,” Mrs. Harington said. “I want the community to know that there are resources out there available to you. Families do not need to be ashamed if their loved ones have addiction. They were just so many people affected by it.”

Boston recently closed down Long Island shelter, where Harrington used to stay. Mrs. Harrington said the government needed to provide more resources to the addicts.

In July of last year, all Somerville Police cruisers were equipped with Narcan, a prescription medication to counteract heroin overdose. Opiate overdose is one of the leading causes of accidental deaths in Massachusetts, especially in Middlesex County.

Narcan, however, is an emergency medical response, Contente said. “It does not treat someone’s addiction. It provides them with another opportunity to consider recovering. We need to have Narcan, but it’s not the tool for recovering,” she said.

So far this year, there have been six fatal overdoses in Somerville, according to Police Chief David Fallon. Eastern Massachusetts has the highest emergency room visits in the entire country, and Middlesex County alone had 1,620 deaths between 2000 and 2014. “From a police perspective, one is too many,” Fallon said.

Currently,the Somerville Police Department is working on a core initiative, Community Outreach and Harm Reduction Program, in hopes of ending the opioid crisis. The program is made up of a geo division coordinator, a crisis intervention trainer, an opioid addiction specialist, a victims witness advocate, and members of a domestic violence unit.

“We’re going to work collaboratively with all our organizations throughout the city to get crisis intervention training,” Fallon said.

Dave Harrington, Ryan Harrington’s father, said in tears, “Tonight we shed light on a number of people who don’t think that prescription drugs are a problem. Addiction not only affects the addicts, it tears families apart, and it hurts relationships.”

The Foundation was formed a year after the death of Ryan Harrington by heroin overdose in 2011. “What we wanted to do is to give something back to the city, turn something tragic into something positive,” Mrs. Harington said. In the past three years, the foundation collected $45,000 from the annual Ryan Harrington Corn Toss Tournament and contributed the money to youth development in Somerville.

The Night of Hope and Awareness event, sponsored by the Ryan Harrington Foundation, also included a presentation on Narcan training by Cambridge Needle Exchange and former Boston Celtic, Chris Herren of The Herren Project.

“It’s time to start removing the stigma of addiction and having more dialog,” Mrs. Harrington said.