Narcan distributions

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Naloxone doses by the hundreds were distributed just before Christmas this year in an effort to help people suffering from opioid overdoses this holiday season.

Overdose deaths in West Virginia declined during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to state health officials.

From March 2021 to March 2022, West Virginia saw 1,485 overdose deaths, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was a decrease of 3.6 percent from the 1,541 deaths for the year ending in March 2021.

Five other states also saw overdose deaths drop, the CDC said. West Virginia’s percentage decrease was the second-highest among all states to Virginia’s 6.7 percent.

Despite that decline, the Mountain State still has the nation’s highest overdose death rate.

“West Virginia is starting to plateau and likely seeing a slight downward trend,” said Dr. Matthew Christiansen, director of the Department of Health and Human Resources’ Office of Drug Control Policy. “We are encouraged by CDC’s data and will continue our efforts to end West Virginia’s substance use epidemic.”

Last week, free Naxolone, which is used to help people suffering opioid overdoses, was distributed in all 55 of West Virginia’s counties as part of the third annual Save a Life Day.

Locally, Community Connections, Inc. oversaw the Naxolone distribution in Monroe, Raleigh, and Summers counties, and Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center handled the distribution for McDowell, Mercer, and Wyoming counties. Various community prevention coalitions, faith-based groups, and business leaders helped with that effort.

In southern West Virginia, first responders get many calls about overdose incidents. According to records at Community Connections, Inc. in Princeton, during the past 365 days, quick response teams that address overdoses have handled 921 overdose cases, non-repeating, in an area covering Mercer, McDowell, Summers, Monroe and Wyoming counties.

“It’s a very complicated situation,” Greg Puckett, executive director of Community Connections, said in a recent interview. “We have been working with the West Virginia Office of Drug Control Policy through a state opioid response grant to expand quick response teams to help deal with overdoses. In southern West Virginia, we have really been pushing the cooperative effort with our community mental health centers; and we have made a tremendous impact distributing Narcan and getting people access to quality care. Had we not been doing this over a long period of time, the death rate in comparison to the overdose rate would have been exponentially higher.”

Quick response teams serving southern West Virginia have been expanded in recne months, according to Puckett.

“Basically, within 72 hours, a licensed response expert goes to visit somebody who has been in a documented overdose,” he said. “This gives them an opportunity to get into an active treatment system. The team of professionals includes rescue squads, nonprofit mental health systems like Southern Highlands, and we have a network in southern West Virginia like very few places have across the country.”

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