The New York Times: How Dayton Cut Opioid Deaths in Half
last updated 12/03/2018
Overdose deaths in Montgomery County are down more than 50 percent from last year. New York Times article says there are clear lessons to be learned from Dayton.
The New York Times: How Dayton Cut Opioid Deaths in Half
Overdose deaths have plunged in Montgomery County. New York Times article says clear lessons to be learned from Dayton
Dayton, Ohio, had one of the highest overdose death rates in the nation in 2017 and the highest in Ohio. Fatal overdoses are down more than 50 percent from last year. The effort to cut mortality rates from overdose deaths in Dayton was the subject of an article in The New York Times last week. The article points to a number of reasons for the sharp decline, including:
- Gov. John Kasich’s decision to expand Medicaid in 2015, a move that gave nearly 700,000 low-income adults access to free addiction and mental health treatment.
- The dwindling presence on the streets of Dayton with carfentanil, an analog of the synthetic opioid fentanyl that the C.D.C. describes as 10,000 times more powerful than morphine
- Dayton blanketing its neighborhoods with naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan — the medication that reverses opioid overdoses if administered quickly enough.
- An unusually large local network of recovery support groups, including neighborhood clubs.
- Investing heavily in peer support — training people who are far enough along in their recovery to work as coaches or mentors.
Read the full article:
This City’s Overdose Deaths Have Plunged. Can Others Learn From It?
