Manchester’s Safe Station program gets social media boost from The White House

MANCHESTER, NH – In a made for social media minute and a half video, Manchester Fire Chief Dan Goonan summarizes the impact Safe Station has had on reducing overdose deaths while doing something to create a “non-judgemental” path toward recovery for anyone who seeks it.

In the video, being circulated on Facebook by the official White House Facebook account, Goonan cites a 30 percent reduction in Manchester’s overdose death rate in 2017, from 90 overdoses to 64, and believes Safe Station has been part of that life-saving progress.

“We’ll help you, we’ll get you into treatment. If you want treatment, we’ll give you a shot at treatment 100 percent of the time,” says Goonan, who calls the national opioid crisis “terrible, heartbreaking and probably the worst thing he’s ever seen.”

President Trump touted Manchester’s Safe Station program on national television in October of 2017, and invited Goonan to a news conference in Washington, D.C.

“No one agency can do it alone. We know we’re saving lives every single day we go out there,” Goonan says.