Mo Charnot
Two of parent Emily Sutherlin’s four children explore the playground at Ragle Park.
When local parent Emily Sutherlin takes her four children out to play at a park, she knows they won’t touch anything that might be unsafe for them to handle. In fact, she’s taught them how to react.
“My kids know that if they find a sharp—or really, it goes for any type of unsafe thing in the park—they go, ‘Sharp!’ and they put their hands in the air, and they yell for me to get my sharps container,” Sutherlin tells SFR, adding that as a positive incentive, “we go out for ice cream afterwards.”
Sutherlin says while having this conversation with her kids was “uncomfortable,” she saw it as necessary amidst the state’s increasing substance abuse issues, noting she and her kids have found plenty of potentially hazardous materials—mainly discarded needles—at parks across Santa Fe.
“I’ve found sharps at parks on the north side, I found sharps at parks on the Southside,” Sutherlin says. “As a mom, I’ve unfortunately seen people nodding out on drugs when I’m at the park with my children. My children, I try to raise them in a way to be compassionate and loving to all of our neighbors—but it’s really scary to see that.”
For this reason, she’s hoping to address ways to handle these issues through promoting a free workshop at Las Acequias Park at 1 pm on Saturday, Sept. 21. At the Safe Kids, Safe Parks event, families can receive hands-on training to learn how to safely dispose of needles and administer naloxone to treat a narcotic overdose, as well as receive free sharps containers, gloves and information about who to call for sharps cleanup and other support services. Those interested in attending can RSVP via Google Form (bit.ly/sharpscleanup).
The workshop will be led by Bernie Lieving, who has worked as a consultant and a statewide overdose prevention coordinator with the New Mexico Human Services Department for eight years. In Santa Fe, Lieving works with a variety of organizations to educate people on overdose prevention, including The Mountain Center, Pete’s Place, the city and county fire departments, the state Department of Health, schools and more. Last month, he says, he distributed 5,200 doses of naloxone nasal spray statewide on his own.
“We can’t keep up,” Lieving tells SFR. “This town is unrecognizable to me from when I moved here in 2003 to go to graduate school. It is violent; it is profoundly underserved. Our fellow community members are being kicked to the curb, literally.”
Lieving, who lives off Harrison Road, says he often finds used needles discarded in his neighborhood as well. He often gives out his phone number and business card to encourage people to call if they spot a sharp that needs to be safely disposed of.
“You don’t want anyone getting a needle stick, but particularly for families who have smaller kids who want to go to playgrounds, we really want to make sure that not only are we keeping the park safe from used injection drug equipment, but also from rusty nails and stuff,” he says. “I want to keep my community safe. That’s why I do these events for families, and that’s why I pull over and check on people, and that’s why I give people what I’ve got in my fridge when they walk by and ask if I have anything to eat or drink.”
The community workshop is co-hosted by Meghan Montelibano-Gorman, who runs Santa Fam—a website dedicated to aggregating affordable events and things to do in Santa Fe for families with babies and toddlers. She initially began her website (and Instagram page) after she had her first child and was struggling to find parks in her area that she found to be safe and accessible for children.
“I have this rubric. ‘Does it have shade? Does it have a picnic bench? Does it have a climbing structure that isn’t going to kill your child?’ But a new kind of checkbox is, ‘Does it have needles?’ And so many times when I post a review, I’ll have a follower say, ‘Heads up, we found needles at this park,’” Montelibano-Gorman tells SFR. “What kind of absurd world do we live in where we have to go check for sharps before our kid goes up on a play structure? That’s the reality of Santa Fe right now.”
Montelibano-Gorman says while she’s “not happy to have to” learn safe needle disposal to go to the park, she feels the Safe Kids, Safe Parks event will translate the issue into a “conversation of community care and compassion, and not one rooted in fear and hatred and misinformation.” While the event is targeted toward families, she says anyone interested in attending is welcome.
“This is a long haul, we know, and we are hopeful that it gets better and the city takes this seriously, and not the entire onus is on the city,” Montelibano-Gorman says. “We see them as a partner. I hope they see us as a partner as well.”
City of Santa Fe’s Parks and Open Space division director Melissa McDonald, tells SFR she feels an educational event for families is “a wonderful thing” and “a great community service.”
“It’s not just in city parks; it’s a problem citywide,” McDonald says, adding that “I think [city parks employees] are well aware, well-trained, and we pick up as needed, but I would love the day that we don’t have to do that.”
In response to this issue, McDonald says city parks employees are all required to take a bloodborne disease course and are shown how to handle pathogens associated with blood and human waste. They can also elect to take a naloxone administration training class, though this is only required for park rangers, emergency services and alternative response unit employees.
Additionally, city parks employees and people from other partner organizations (such as the Santa Fe Watershed Association and Keep Santa Fe Beautiful) survey each park to look for needles and anything else unsafe that might be in the area while on daily trash runs, though McDonald notes this can often be difficult.
“It can be a needle in a haystack of sorts,” McDonald says. “Not every needle can be found, but [parks employees] are there to pick them up, and they do go through the site and look for litter and things like that.”
Sutherlin also plans on writing an informational handout for parents to help them through conversations with their children about handling sharps and administering naloxone, the latter being of particular importance to her.
“[Me and my kids] had a conversation that, if somebody takes bad medication, I have something that’s a good medication that can help them. Something about that has made the whole situation less scary for me, which is why I really wanted to share the information I have learned with other people,” Sutherlin says. “There’s no reason you should be that scared to go to a park.”
Safe Parks, Safe Kids COMMUNITY NEEDLE & NARCAN TRAINING: 1 pm Saturday, Sept. 21. Free. Las Acequias Park, 1100 Calle Atajo, instagram.com/_santafam_
