In response to a series of overdoses in over ten days, the staff at a Kingston non-profit rushed to open a 24/7 hotline to help intervene in the lives of addicts.

David McNamara, the executive director at Samadhi Recovery Community Outreach Center, said plans for a hotline began moving more quickly after the area's sixth fatal overdose last week.

"Once we had this spate of overdoses, we put everything in hyperdrive to get it up and going," McNamara said in an interview at Samadhi on Wednesday.

Started in April 2019, Samadhi offers a wide range of treatments with local mental health professionals who volunteer their time and help steer addicts toward other treatment options.

While there have been a reported six fatal overdoses in the area, there have been about 15 other overdoses that were not fatal, according to McNamara. In some cases, McNamara told Spectrum News, one addict might end up in a hospital emergency room multiple times in one evening.

Because many overdoses happen during the overnight hours when addiction treatment resource centers are not operating, peer counselors often miss opportunities to intervene in lives of addicts.

That is what led McNamara to get the hotline open earlier than planned, scheduling 16 peer counselors who work on a rotation to cover all hours of the day.

"They get discharged from the ER at 2 a.m. and they go home," McNamara explained. "The next morning, they may not want to go into treatment at that point, but having somebody there at the moment when somebody is thinking about change, to me, I think is crucial."

When police or a hospital call the hotline regarding an overdose patient, Samadhi mobilizes a peer counselor immediately to meet the patient at the hospital to discuss treatment and counseling options.

The hotline's peer counselors also help direct concerned families toward treatment options for loved ones. McNamara said, on some days, Samadhi receives up to 15 calls from people seeking help for relatives or friends.

The number is 855-SAMADHI (855-726-2344).