In recent years, the opioid crisis has grown into one of the biggest public health concerns in America. Countless communities across the country have been affected by prescription opioid addiction and abuse, but Onondaga County is one place that has been hit particularly hard.
Data published by the NORC at the University of Chicago showed that from 2012-2016, Onondaga County experienced 22.6 opioid-related deaths per 100,000 people. This is far higher than both the New York State average (14.8) and the national average (14.1).
“That’s the million dollar question,” said Mariah Senecal-Reilly, a program coordinator at the Onondaga County Health Department, when asked about why the rate of opioid-related fatalities is higher in Onondaga County than the state and national averages. Senecal-Reilly went on to explain how a number of different factors could play into why the county has been hit so hard by the opioid crisis.
“There’s a variety of different factors within the community that could influence high opioid use rates,” said Senecal-Reilly. “Intersection of major highways, high poverty rates, and area hospitals.”
Although the amount of opioid-related deaths in Onondaga County have been so high in recent years, the numbers are actually going down. Data collected by the Onondaga County Health Department shows that since 2016, there has been a decrease in the number of opioid fatalities in the county.
The quarterly data collected by the Onondaga County Health Department reveals that after a staggering 142 opioid-related deaths in 2016, the county has seen those numbers trending downward. In 2017, there were just 91 reported opioid-related deaths, and only 43 so far in 2018.
With the number of deaths due to opioids going down, there is still work to do to ensure that those numbers keep getting lower. Senecal-Reilly says encouraging and improving access to treatment is key in addressing the opioid problem in the future.
“The way that it’s going to be addressed as we move forward is continuing to encourage people to seek treatment and make sure there’s easy access to treatment for people with substance abuse disorder.”
