Drug-related deaths down so far this year in Porter County

Jones, program director for Porter County United Against Opioid Abuse, made two presentations on the issue at the United Way of Porter County offices. 

"If we didn't have Naloxone, our death rate would be insane," Jones said of the local statistics, adding the numbers will likely rise because of a few cases still pending determination.

Jones said the group began in October looking at the issue. In addition to gathering data, she said they held 14 community conversations with 115 people from different walks of life to try to get a handle on the pervasiveness of the opioid epidemic, including the over prescribing of addictive pain killers, and the disease of addiction itself.

According to data provided by Jones, there have been 21 deaths in Porter County so far this year related to drug overdoses. Of those, 14 are opioid related. At this point last year, the death total was 30, with 27 tied to opioids. Last year's total deaths were 50 with 43 related to opioids.

Those who are dying from overdoses, she said, are older with the percentage of deaths in the age 50 to 59 year range doubling, while the deaths in the 20 to 29 year range are a third of what they were last year. She also said 90 percent of the deaths were men, compared to 58 percent last year.

Jones said the community conversations indicated that two of the largest issues are that people "do not speak a common language when we speak of addiction" and a large problem with stigma related to addiction, which indications a lack of understanding.

The outcome of the study, she said, is that there are needs. 

Those needs include: increasing community engagement and a willingness to increase the feeling of responsibility for your neighbors; early prevention that teaches life skills and reality-based efforts instead of those that just make us feel good, but aren't working; making more resources available, including more treatment centers, breaking down the barriers to receive treatment and providing recovery support resources beyond the typical 30 days following treatment.

"They need an opportunity in the community, they need a chance. We have to give them an opportunity to succeed," said Jones.

Jones said they have joined with groups from Lake, LaPorte, Jasper and Newton counties to form the Northwest Indiana Information Sharing and Security Alliance to continue to tackle the issue on a regional basis.