Damian Peterson has traversed San Francisco every week for the last two years, meeting with as many as 15 people each day at several permanent supportive-housing facilities to dispense buprenorphine, which has become an increasingly relied-upon treatment for substance-use disorder in The City.
Armed with a gentle bedside manner, a soft voice, and a backpack dotted with enamel pins patients have gifted him, Peterson is the only psychiatric clinical pharmacist making in-home visits within the San Francisco Department of Public Health system. He said his current caseload consists of 68 patients at 36 different sites.
Peterson will get help as soon as Monday, when a spokesperson said the department will begin training another pharmacist to work alongside him. That candidate will formally start working in the role in September, as San Francisco public-health officials increasingly advocate for the expansion of medication treatment to counter the ongoing opioid crisis .
For dozens of The City’s most vulnerable residents, including those who have unsuccessfully tried other treatment options, Peterson’s work is vital.