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PROVIDENCE – The number of drug overdose deaths in Rhode Island in 2018 has decreased for the second year in a row, Health Ministry said Wednesday.
However, officials warned against complacency when the department launched a new media campaign "aimed at reducing the abusive and abusive use of opioid badgesics by Rhode Islanders aged 18 to 50 years."
According to the Department of Health, 314 overdose deaths were reported in Rhode Island last year, compared to 324 in 2017 and 336 in 2016. Between 2017 and 2018, the department recorded a 4.2% decrease the number of overdose deaths related to opioids.
Nevertheless, the department said in its statistics reflecting the drug crisis in the country: "Between 2009 and 2016, we recorded a 143% increase, 138 against 336, of all overdose deaths in Rhode Island. "
In a press release, the ministry cited a number of factors explaining the recent decline and credited initiatives initiated or supported by the Overdose Prevention Working Group and Governor Gina Raimondo's intervention in Rhode Island.
"Partnering with health care providers to ensure that prescriptions are done safely and wisely, while ensuring that people with chronic conditions get the medications they need" was as well as "the establishment of the first comprehensive program of medication-badisted therapy in any correctional system in the United States" in the Department of Corrections.
In addition, according to the Ministry of Health, "expand primary prevention programs in schools and other community settings, by creating new pathways for people in recovery to get good careers and by ensuring that our resources reach more diverse populations. [and] open treatment centers, called centers of excellence, throughout the state. "
"We still have a lot of work ahead of us," said Tom Coderre, Raimondo's senior advisor. "However, after seeing an increase in the total number of overdose deaths for more than a decade, we are now seeing a decline in the last two years. This is a concrete impetus on which we must continue to work in the areas of prevention, treatment, salvage and recovery. "
Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, Director of the Department of Health, said, "Any overdose, that's too much. We can not bring back the people we tragically lost because of this epidemic. But we can honor and love them as a community by doing everything in their power to prevent further deaths from drug overdoses in Rhode Island and save as many lives as possible. Addiction is a disease. Recovery is possible. "
The new awareness campaign "contains information on the risks badociated with opioids, their effects on the body and their interactions with substances such as alcohol," the department said. It includes social media, digital components and a website, OvertheDoseRI.org.
"The campaign is based on formative research that found that high-risk young adults aged 18 to 25 considered opioids to be at low or no risk for occasional recreational use because they did not know what they were doing. what opioids are or how opioids could harm them in the department.
"We must continue to work to ensure that primary prevention activities are carried out in all communities in Rhode Island and to ensure that treatment and recovery resources are available to all those who are ready to engage. on the road to recovery, "said Rebecca Boss, director of the State Department of Behavioral Health Care, Intellectual Disabilities and Hospitals.
"We know that through a combination of behavioral therapies, medications and community support, recovery is absolutely possible for any Rhode Islander who is living with a substance use disorder."
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