Experts Hoping 2021 Reverse Troubling Trend of Increased Opioid Addiction and Overdoses

Saturday, January 2nd, 2021 -- 8:01 AM

(WBAY) We all have hope that 2021 will bring better times and better health for everyone.

It also brings about hope to reverse the troubling trend in 2020 that saw increased opioid addictions and overdoses.  Work is underway to not just treat, but prevent addictions, especially in schools and rural areas.

A new CDC report, released in mid-December, shows more people died of drug overdoses in a single year, ending in May of 2020, than ever recorded.  That number? 81,000 lives lost across the country.

While that doesn’t account for deaths during the majority of the pandemic, the death toll is sending alarms to local drug counselors and treatment centers, who’ve already been seeing the pandemic’s impact.

“We’ve seen increased deaths by suicide. We’ve seen increased overdoses. We’ve seen increased need for treatment at the very time, really, where our medical resources are stretched,” says Jeff Stumbras, Executive Director of Behavioral Health for HSHS in Eastern Wisconsin, Libertas Treatment Center and Prevea Health.

Stumbras points to Wisconsin’s battle, a more than 20-percent increase in overdose deaths and a 50 percent increase in OD deaths involving synthetic opioids, like Fentanyl.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.