Substance Use Navigators

Despite being a small team of two, this dynamic duo play a vital role in bridging emergency care with community health by serving a specific patient population: people with substance use or withdrawal.

Inez Wendy Martinez and Danita Patterson are Substance Use Navigators, or SUNs, and together they help more than 2,000 patients a year. Many experience addiction to opioids, heroin, stimulants, or alcohol. Martinez and Patterson conduct emergency or inpatient assessments, make follow-up appointments for patients, and can connect them with community resources or long-term residential treatment facilities.

“We want to help patients when they’re most vulnerable and get them on the right track and to the right care,” Martinez says.

What’s more, the two SUNs stay in contact with many of their patients via text message to offer advice on treatment options, celebrate their successes, or be available as a trusted mentor in times of crisis.

The team serves TMC Emergency Department, Children’s Hospital Emergency Department, Labor & Delivery, all Medical Center inpatient floors, and East Campus Urgent Care. SUNs also provide education to doctors, nurses, and students on how to best care for this diverse patient population. The team also recently procured and placed naloxone — a nasal spray that can save the life of someone experiencing an opioid overdose — in automatic external defibrillator emergency boxes around LLUH campuses.

Martinez helped develop the SUN program at LLUH in 2021 with the support from grants awarded to the Emergency Department. She says her mission is personal, having grown up in a family in which several members have lived experiences.

“People who are substance users are loved, and I want to help them become whole so they can repair relationships with their family,” she says.

The SUN team meets patients where they are in their recovery journey. Both SUNs tell patients that ongoing counseling is crucial to their treatment, just as much as any medication they may have been prescribed.

Martinez and Patterson encourage employees at Loma Linda University Health to refer anyone who might need assistance directly to them at the following contact information:

Inez Wendy Martinez
951-223-1277 (call or text)
iwmartinez@llu.edu

Danita Patterson
909-312-4210 (call or text)
dpatterson@llu.edu