Bøker av Peter Canning

A practical and compassionate guide to understanding and addressing the opioid crisis.The opioid crisis in the United States continues to kill Americans at an alarming rate. Over the past two decades, annual overdose deaths have skyrocketed, growing from roughly 20,000 per year to over 100,000 per year. In this deeply informed and compassionate guide, Peter Canning shares the devastating realities of the opioid crisis from the perspective of a seasoned paramedic and advocate. This essential resource provides practical tools to recognize and respond to overdoses, access life-saving treatments like naloxone, and navigate the complex landscape of addiction and recovery. Canning humanizes the crisis through poignant stories of individuals and families grappling with the ripple effects of substance use. The book offers a broader understanding of the epidemic's roots, including the rise of fentanyl, the science of addiction, and the transformative potential of harm reduction strategies. Canning explains how to recognize the signs of overdose, the risk factors that increase the likelihood of overdose, and the precautions that both people who use opioids and those who care about them can take. With extensive experience as a paramedic who responded to countless opioid overdoses, Canning explains what to do in case you discover someone who has overdosed on opioids.For anyone trying to help a loved one manage opioid use disorder, the process can be overwhelming, and the stigma that accompanies substance use disorder makes it even harder. Whether you're a concerned citizen, a family member, or someone directly impacted by the crisis, The Friend and Family Guide to the Opioid Overdose Epidemic equips you with the knowledge and empathy to take meaningful steps toward saving lives and fostering understanding in your community.

A collection of stories about men who venture into the world with bravado, battle fiercely for their place, and then struggle to find peace and a way home, Promised Land is alive with friendship, regret, grace and the soaring spirit of American dreams. Books by Peter Canning Paramedic: On the Frontlines of Medicine (Ballantine,1997)Rescue 471: A Paramedic's Stories (Ballantine, 2000)Killing Season: A Paramedic's Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic (Johns Hopkins Press University, 2021) Mortal Men (Diomedes, 2012)Diamond in the Rough (Diomedes, 2016)Promised Land: Ten Stories (1994)

Paramedic Troy Johnson battles trauma and sickness on the streets of Hartford, Connecticut. When a fellow medic is shot to death responding to a 911 call, a grief-stricken Troy vows to avenge the death, while struggling to come to grips with his own mortality. Mortal Men examines the ancient bonding between friends and partners who count on each other to make it safely home. Written by veteran paramedic Peter Canning, author of the acclaimed Paramedic: On the Front Lines of Medicine and Rescue 471: A Paramedic's Stories, Mortal Men provides a rare view into the real-life world of street medicine and into the lives of the men and women who fight its battles.

A devastating, empathetic look at the opioid epidemic in the United States, through the eyes of a paramedic on the front lines.[I] set my cardiac monitor down by the young man's head. He is lifeless, his face white with a blue tinge. I apply the defibrillator pads to his hairless chest . . . A week from today, after the young man's brain shows no signs of electrical activity, the medical staff will take the breathing tube out, and with his family gathered by his side, he will pass away at the age of twenty-three. When Peter Canning started work as a paramedic on the streets of Hartford, Connecticut, twenty-five years ago, he believed drug users were victims only of their own character flaws. Although he took care of them, he did not care for them. But as the overdoses escalated, Canning began asking his patients how they had gotten started on their perilous journeys. And while no two tales were the same, their heartrending similarities changed Canning's view and moved him to educate himself about the science of addiction. Armed with that understanding, he began his fight against the stigmatization of users.In Killing Season, we ride along with Canning through the streets of Hartford as he tells stories of opioid overdose from a street-level vantage point. A first responder to hundreds of overdoses throughout the rise of America's epidemic, Canning has seen the impact of prescription painkillers, heroin, and the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl firsthand. Bringing us into the room (or the car, or the portable toilet) with the victims of this epidemic, Canning explains how he came to favor harm reduction, which advocates for needle exchange, community naloxone, and safe-injection sites.Through the rapid-fire nature of one paramedic's view of addiction and overdose, readers will come to understand more than just the science and misguided policies behind the opioid epidemic. They'll also share in Canning's developing empathy. Stripping away the stigma of addiction through stories that are hard-hitting, poignant, sad, confessional, funny, and overall, human, Killing Season will change minds about the epidemic, help obliterate stigma, and save lives.