Olivia Brennan dies. She was at the forefront in the drug abuse battle on Staten Isalnd.
Originally published in
Staten Island Advance
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – New York City was in the throes of a heroin and crack epidemic in the early 1990s when Olivia Brennan saw the need for a detox unit on Staten Island.
As director of the social work department at the former Doctors’ Hospital in Concord, she battled drug abuse with education and intervention by opening a unit that helped addicts through painful withdrawal and into life-saving rehabilitation.
Her death Saturday morning in Richmond University Medical Center, one day after her 81st birthday, inspired memories of a kind and altruistic woman who put the needs of others in front of her own.
“Her work truly saved and changed lives,” said State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton in a Women’s History Month tribute last March. “She was a tireless advocate for Staten Island’s most vulnerable populations.”
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