Fayette County, much like many other counties throughout Indiana and the Midwest, faces the issues of substance abuse on a daily basis, whether medically or legally.
A report issued Monday by the United Way, however, indicates that while many are battling addiction in Fayette County, there are just as many seeking help in that battle.
The United Way released its March 2016 Connect2Help211 report, which focused on the state’s “burgeoning” drug problem and how the Connect2Help211 program has assisted in tackling that problem.
“According to the most recent data from the Centers of Disease Control, overdose deaths in Indiana have increased 9.6 percent,” the report states. “Coupled with the recent HIV infection outbreak among intravenous drug uses in Scott County, the gravity of the situation is quite apparent.”
Connect2Help211 offers a variety of access to resources, among those resources being substance abuse assistance, and the program compiled its figures for those in its 35-county coverage area who sought such help between 2014 and 2015.
“By combining the needs from the web searches and the calls, we get a more accurate look at the substance abuse needs across the state,” the report reads. “We can see there are sharp rises in those seeking treatment, both inpatient and outpatient, as well as Suboxone/Subutex and Methadone maintenance programs.”
Fayette County, according to the reports figures, was among the counties with the highest increase of those seeking treatment or assistance for substance abuse between 2014 and 2015, as the county saw at least a 200 percent increase in requests for substance abuse help during that period, as did two other area counties, Franklin and Union.
Wayne County saw requests for assistance increase between 101 percent and 200 percent during that period, while Rush County requests increased between 1 percent and 100 percent.
The only area county, in fact, that saw a decrease in requests for assistance to Connect2Help211 regarding substance abuse was Henry County, according to the report.
The report went on to show the correlation between the increase in substance abuse requests to Connect2Help211 and the increases or decreases in substance abuse deaths during the same time period, as well.
For Fayette, Rush and Henry counties, the number of substance abuse deaths either remained constant between 2014 and 2015, according to the report, or decreased.
Meanwhile, Wayne and Franklin counties experienced between a 15 percent to 29 percent increase in their substance abuse deaths, while Union County reported no substance abuse deaths for 2015, per the report.
Lynn Engel, president and chief executive officer of Connect2Help211, said while the fight against substance abuse will not be going away anytime soon, the figures show that in many cases – such as Fayette County’s – the program is helping those who reach out for help receive that very help.
“While it will take many progressions and advances to move us toward a future when substance abuse is a thing of the past, Connect2Help211 continues to do our part to provide a safe mode of communication for those affected, including users and the people who love them, to help get them to the assistance they need,” she wrote in an email Monday.
For those seeking substance abuse assistance, they can contact the Connect2Help211 program by calling 211 or by going online to www.Connect2Help211.org.
The program is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for assistance.