LYNN — U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton toured the Lynn Community Health Center and Phoenix Food Hub during his visit to the city Thursday.

“We are long-time supporters of the Community Health Center and they continue to do amazing work, so we’re going to keep up that support,” Moulton said. 

During the visit, Nurse Educator Charlotte Badler demonstrated how to perform compression-only CPR and how to use an automated external defibrillator. Peer Recovery Coach Christina Ferreria demonstrated how to administer Narcan.

“It depends on what level of training you have, but a lot of people are afraid to act when they see someone suddenly collapse,” Badler said. “Maybe they haven’t taken a CPR class, or they can’t remember all of the steps, and so then they don’t act in an emergency. Unfortunately, that contributes to the fact that 90% of people who experience a sudden cardiac arrest will not survive.” 

Moulton asked how to know whether an unconscious person should be administered Narcan or given chest compressions.

Badler said administering Narcan to a person who has not overdosed or has no opioids in their system will not harm them, so it is safe to administer Narcan, then continue performing chest compressions. 

Ferreria shared her story as a mother who is nine years into her recovery from substance-use disorder. She said the city should adopt safe-consumption sites, safe spaces for people to bring their own drugs to use in the presence of trained staff.

“When we talk about people using drugs, we can’t talk about it with an endgame. Sometimes there is no endgame,” she said. “This is a very controversial thing in the city and in the state in general, but we need these sites for people to use safely and so that the community can feel some type of relief from public use and public overdose.” 

She added that harm reduction must be supported because otherwise, the city is “essentially” treating people with substance-use disorder as “a nuisance.” 

At the Phoenix Food Hub, Moulton met with Mayor Jared Nicholson and Greater Lynn Senior Services CEO Kathryn Burns.

Burns told Moulton that GLSS is always looking for more funding to provide mental-health services to the younger population.

She added that recently, the House of Representatives proposed cutting funding for nutrition programming, and asked him to work as hard as he can to make sure this does not happen.

“We see lots and lots of people coming in every month,” Burns said.

She added the nonprofit serves approximately 9,000 clients per year.

In an interview with The Item, Moulton said to ensure the House does not cut funding for nutrition programming, Democrats need to “one, make sure Trump doesn’t come back to Washington, and two, reclaim leadership in Congress so that we can restore that funding.”