The Travis County Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition in partnership with Cardea announced it’s first year update to their grant to prevent prescription and non-prescription opioid misuse among girls including webinars, webcasts and interviews with healthcare professionals and local media.
The project has accomplished the following in its first year:
In March of 2018, Dr. Lori Holleran Steiker, distinguished professor at the University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work conducted a 3-hour workshop for school personnel. Over 20 school nurses and counselors participated. 75% of workshop participants reported that they intend to make changes to practices after the workshop. In June of 2018, an additional presentation was made to 107 school nurses at the Region 13 School Nurse Conference held at Dell Children’s Medical Center
5 Things to Know About the Opioid Crisis in Travis County
Oct. 29, 2017 – Statesman – Here are five things to know about how the epidemic has affected Travis County and the state:
1. Age and race: According to a 2014 University of Texas study, opioid users in Texas are increasingly white and younger. About 74 percent of people seeking treatment for dependence on opiates other than heroin and synthetics were white. The average age was 35.
2. Overdose rates: In 2014, Travis County had a lower overdose death rate than other large Texas counties. The UT study in 2014 found that Travis County had an overdose death rate of 2.3 per 100,000 people. Nueces County (Corpus Christi), topped the list with an overdose death rate of 10.4, followed by Dallas County (Dallas) at 6.8. Bexar County (San Antonio) and Harris County (Houston) both had overdose death rates of 5.1.
3. Top medications: Hydrocodone was the prescription medication most commonly detected in people autopsied in Travis County in 2009. The Travis County medical examiner also found Xanax and Valium among the top three.
4. Underreported: A 2015 American-Statesman and Houston Chronicle investigation established that prescription drug overdose deaths are widely underreported in Texas and most states.
5. Veterans at risk: Nearly 18 percent of Texas veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq died of drug overdoses, most involving prescription drugs, according to a 2012 American-Statesman investigation that looked into post-combat deaths of Texas veterans from suicide and prescription drug abuse.
Dr. Philip Huang, the medical director at the local health department, told the American Statesman in April 2018 that the number of deaths related to opioids in Travis County is still relatively small compared with other metropolitan areas around the country. However, it is important to give a picture of what is happening in our area with the hope that policymakers can get ahead of the crisis, he said.
Here are some of the key findings from the recently released local data:
• 3,600: Calls to Texas Poison Center Network from Travis County for opioid exposure between 2000 and 2017.
• 1,398: Drug overdose deaths in Travis County from 2006 to 2016.
• 127: Average number of drug overdose deaths each year in Travis County.
• 66.5: Number of prescriptions for opioids per 100 people by doctors nationwide.
• 51.2: Number of prescriptions for opioids per 100 people by doctors in Travis County. While this number is significantly lower than the national average, Huang admits it is still disturbingly high. He said doctors overprescribing pain medication has been the driver of the opioid epidemic.
• 42.2: Percent of overdose deaths related to opioids like heroin, methadone and prescription narcotics.
• 14.4: Percent of deaths related to cocaine, the next most common drug blamed in Travis County overdoses.
• 2: Number of times as many men overdose on opioids as women. Similarly, two times as many white people as black people and two and half times as many white people as Hispanics overdose on opioids. Huang said this is different than what researchers see with other abused drugs.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Drug Overdoses and Opioid Use in Travis County
Since 2006, an average of 127 residents have died each year due to all drug overdoses, with an average of 42% (53) from opioid overdoses.
The United States is in the middle of an opioid overdose epidemic. Opioids, including prescription opioids, heroin and fentanyl killed more than 42,000 people in 2016, more than any year on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In this month’s Travis County Medical Society Journal, Austin Public Health summarizes drug overdose and opioid use data for Austin and Travis County. The journal article can be seen here. The article is in this publication: http://www.tcms.com/TCMS_Journal/
Since 2006, there has been an upward trend in the number of drug overdose deaths (all drugs) as well as opioid overdose deaths in Travis County. Data for Travis County show that both prescription opioids and illicit opioids contribute to overdose in Travis County. However, Travis County remains well below the national and state rate for opioid prescribing. In 2016, the Travis County opioid prescription rate (51.2 per 100 persons) was lower than the Texas rate (57.6 per 100 persons) and the US rate (66.5 per 100 persons).
Other summary highlights include:
- 1,398 Travis County residents died due to drug overdoses from 2006-2016, an average of 127 each year.
- 590 of those deaths (42.2%) were due to a drug overdose from opioids (including opium, heroin, methadone, other opioids and other synthetic narcotics).
- Of the 590 deaths due to opioid overdoses, 537 (91%) were unintentional poisonings; 43 (7%) were intentional (suicide).
- Males have a rate of overdose death due to opioids that is twice as high as females (6.4 per 100,000 versus 3.1 per 100,000).
- Whites have a rate of overdose due to opioids (6.8 per 100,000) that is more than twice that of blacks (3.3 per 100,000) and two and a half times that of Hispanics (2.7 per 100,000).
- From 2000 through 2017 there were 3,600 calls from Travis County to the Texas Poison Center Network for exposure to opioids—an average of 200 calls each year. Calls from exposures involving children (ages 0-19) accounted for 27% of all calls.
“Based on the data, Austin Public Health recommends expanding access to evidence-based substance abuse treatment, expanding access and use of naloxone, a safe antidote to reverse opioid overdoses and improving prescription drug monitoring to improve patient safety and prevent abuse,” said Dr. Philip Huang, Medical Director and Health Authority for Austin Public Health.
