Page 25 - HealthcareNews May/June 2021

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t’s been a tough year in the battle against opioid addiction, Jessica Collins said — but no one’s throwing in the towel.
“The prevention world did not stop through- out the pandemic,” said the executive director
of the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts during a recent virtual forum on the opioid crisis hosted by U.S. Sen. Edward Markey. But the stresses caused by COVID-19 have certainly presented another layer of challenge.
“My colleagues in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties are trying to focus on preven- tion,” Collins went on, “but they are tired, and I think that issues of housing and food insecurity and economic foundations to support families are aggravating this, and we’re going to see that for a long time.”
“I think that issues of housing and food insecurity and economic foundations to support families are aggravating this, and we’re going to see that for a long time.”
Markey took the opportunity to speak with Collins and a pair of Boston-area human-services providers about a recent state report that offered some sobering news about the too-often-fatal impact of opioid addic- tion in Massachusetts.
Specifically, opioid-related overdose deaths in the Bay State increased by 5% in 2020 compared to 2019, with rates among black, non-Hispanic males making up the largest increase, according to preliminary data released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH).
The state reported 2,104 confirmed and estimated opioid-related overdose deaths in 2020, an estimated 102 more than the prior year and slightly above the previous peak of 2,102 in 2016. This is the first increase in annual opioid-related deaths in Massachusetts in three years and coincides with the extraordinary public-health chal- lenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the rise in overdose deaths is a national
Pill to
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Opioid Overdose Deaths Rise in Massachusetts, Nationwide
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