Dayton, Ohio Addresses Opioid Crisis

The Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association is leading an effort to create a one-stop crisis care center in Montgomery County to ease the current burden on hospital emergency rooms and the jail, which are overloaded with opioid addicts and those in need of mental health services. It was one of many projects tackling the opioid epidemic presented Friday at a meeting of the Montgomery County Community Overdose Action Team (COAT). "The numbers in our community are not getting better," County Commissioner Dan Foley said in opening the meeting. Ninety-eight people died from accidental overdoses in the county in May, according to an unofficial tally he shared from the coroner's office. The total number of deaths in the county in the first five months of 2017 has surpassed all of 2016. Fentanyl deaths outnumber those from pain pills and heroin in the county and deaths are increasing in the black community, said Montgomery County Health Commissioner Jeff Cooper. Based on state data, Montgomery County had the first or second highest rate of overdose deaths based on population last year, he said. Foley said COAT - which brings together all the various agencies involved in addiction prevention and treatment - has been successful since its formation last year in improving the county's treatment bed capacity and increasing the doses of life-saving naloxone available to first responders and the community. The proposed crisis center would likely...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Patient Care News Source Type: news