Resources
How is Virginia Responding?
Virginia has addressed prescription drug abuse in several ways, including with a dedicated study, the creation of the RELIVE program, and multi-agency effort to provide training in opioid abuse recognition and response. The General Assembly in 2016 passed bi-partisan legislation focused on curtailing opioid misuse. Virginia's new two-year budget has $11 million in funding to create new, and expand current, Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment services for Medicaid beneficiaries.
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Virginia Department Of Health
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Virginia Fatal Prescription Opioid Overdoses
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Virginia hospitals have already taken steps to prevent opioid misuse. Now, a VHHA task force led by hospital representatives from across the state has developed a set of 14 emergency department opioid prescribing guidelines that can be implemented statewide. REVIVE! is the Opioid Overdose and Naloxone Education (OONE) program for the Commonwealth of Virginia. REVIVE! provides training on how to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose emergency using naloxone. To learn how to save a life from an opioid overdose.
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The increasing trend of drug addiction in Virginia is contributing to multiple adverse public health effects, including but not limited to increasing numbers of blood borne pathogen infections (e.g., Hepatitis C), overdoses requiring emergency care, and deaths. In 2016, a public health emergency was declared. The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) remains committed to preventing injury and death from addiction; preventing and reducing infectious disease related to addiction; promoting efforts to prevent and reduce the disease of addiction; and using data and public health surveillance to inform prevention and response efforts.
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Richmond
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Health Districts in many counties across Virginia are working to provide services and resources to individuals and communities impacted by the opioid epidemic. Naloxone is a medication used to reverse an opioid overdose, and can save the life of a loved one or community member. Click on your community for additional information. and see how you can help.
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Henrico County: https://henrico.us/health/opioid-public-health-crisis/
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Chesterfield county: https://www.chesterfield.gov/4117/County-Opioid-Response
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Hanover County: https://www.hanovercounty.gov/358/Community-Services-Board
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Richmond City: http://rbha.org/services/substance-use-disorder-services/prevention-services-unit
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How is the Nation Responding to this Epidemic?
Article in the NY Times about teaching children to administer Narcan:
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This article discusses how county health officials in Tennessee are teaching children as young as six years old how to reverse an overdose. Although this strategy may seem radical, at least 100 children returned to the coalition director for additional doses after going through their personal supply. The region’s overdose prevention specialist mentioned that only three schools in eight counties allowed her to provide training, as most schools did not want to admit that opioid over usage was a problem. To avoid these obstacles, a nurse-practitioner explained that she provides Narcan training wherever she can: high school basketball games, tailgates, summer camps, McDonalds, and in classrooms.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/23/us/opioids-tennessee-narcan-training.html
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Effects of COVID-19 on Opioid Epidemics:
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People with substance use disorder already face many obstacles to treatment. However, public health precautions such as social distancing and self-quarantine—necessary measures, by all accounts, to contain the spread of COVID-19—are more than inconveniences to a person struggling with addiction. They are risk factors for relapse that can impede access to highly regulated but critical medications such as methadone and buprenorphine. The fear and uncertainty associated with social and economic distress, along with mandated isolation, can aggravate anxiety and depression—and many people will self-medicate with drugs and alcohol to ease the stress. It is a known fact that the path to addiction is littered with loneliness and disconnection. Because of this tragic confluence of viral outbreak and necessary countermeasures, we are likely to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic with more new people suffering from addiction and more people who have fallen out of treatment and relapsed.
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https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200407.290720/full/
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Coronavirus Crisis Spurs Access To Online Treatment For Opioid Addiction:
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Addiction experts have been calling for that change for years to help expand access for patients in many parts of the country that have shortages of physicians eligible to prescribe these medication-assisted treatments. A federal report in January found that 40% of U.S. counties don't have a single health care provider approved to prescribe buprenorphine, an active ingredient in Suboxone.
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The Center for Disease Control (CDC):
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In 2017, more than 70,000 people died from drug overdoses, making it a leading cause of injury-related death in the United States. Of those deaths, almost 68% involved a prescription or illicit opioid. Drug overdose deaths continue to increase in the United States.
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The best ways to prevent opioid overdose deaths are to improve opioid prescribing, reduce exposure to opioids, prevent misuse, and treat opioid use disorder.Improving the way opioids are prescribed through clinical practice guidelines can ensure patients have access to safer, more effective chronic pain treatment while reducing the risk of opioid use disorder, overdose, and death. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) published guidelines for prescribing opioids for chronic pain to provide recommendations for prescribing opioid pain medication for patients 18 and older in primary care settings.
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/prescribing/guideline.html
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National Institute on Drug Abuse:
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Opioid epidemic is increasing the rates of some infectious diseases!
Since 1999, nearly 400,000 people in the United States have fatally overdosed on opioid-containing drugs, with 47,600 deaths in 2017 alone. Many people with opioid use disorder (OUD), who initially were prescribed oral drugs to treat pain, now inject prescribed or illegal opioids. High-risk injection practices such as needle-sharing are causing a surge in infectious diseases.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/opioid-epidemic-increasing-rates-some-infectious-diseases
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https://www.nih.gov/news-events/opioids-digital-press-kit
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https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-summaries-by-state
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Ted Talk:
Chris Johnson
Johnson discusses how healthcare system and medical industry use of incentives has create the opioid epidemic.
Ted Talk:
Jay DeMarco
Interesting take, rather than discussing the opioid from a patient’s point of view, DeMarco discusses the healthcare industry and claims that doctors are “addicted to prescribing opioids”. He offers a new approach to post-surgery pain management.
Ted Talk:
Jan Rader
Rader talks about the need for change and discusses her community’s new approach to treating substance abuse.
Ted Talk:
Chera Kowalski
Chera discusses how she as a librarian has taken steps to prevent the opioid epidemic by learning how to administer Narcan and encourages people to take more action.