Wednesday, April 24, 2024
4/24/2024
According to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Louisiana ranked 19th in the country in drug overdose deaths with an age-adjusted rate of 24.5 per 100,000 persons. Preliminary numbers from the state vital records database demonstrate that Louisiana had an 11% increase in opioid-involved deaths from 2017 to 2018. The 2018 totals indicate opioid-involved deaths doubled in the last five years. Preliminary data also mirrors the national trend of increasing fentanyl deaths, with a 41% increase from 2017 to 2018. The 2018 fentanyl-involved death total is nearly nine times the number recorded in 2014. In response to the growing crisis of opioid-involved deaths in Louisiana, the Office of Public Health entered into cooperative agreements with the CDC in 2016 that invested $2.3 million in establishing an opioid surveillance program in the Louisiana Department of Health. The program measures the burden of fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses to understand the scope of the state’s opioid crisis and to evaluate the impact of the department’s objectives to decrease opioid dependence through prevention, education, and treatment. This program demonstrates that the opioid crisis requires a more coordinated and comprehensive public health approach incorporating primary prevention efforts, strengthened community engagement, public and private partnerships, and clinical expertise. The purpose of Louisiana’s application to the OD2A NOFO is two-fold: to sustain and enhance current opioid surveillance activities to measure outcomes and inform prevention and response efforts and to implement linkages to care and harm-reduction programming to individuals utilizing public health services by targeting high-risk populations and geographic areas. Surveillance activities will provide greater opportunity for longitudinal analysis and improved data access and visualization, both of which will inform prevention and treatment efforts at the state and community levels. Prevention activities will focus on mitigating addiction, preventing overdoses, and providing educational and referral opportunities to families and individuals in communities served by the Office of Public Health. Outcomes: • Enhanced analysis and reporting of non-fatal opioid-involved overdoses in emergency department and hospital inpatient claims to include stimulants and benzodiazepines; • Expanded partnerships with parish coroners to (1) relieve the burden on coroners whose workloads and budgets are strained by opioid related overdose deaths ; and (2) collect more specific data on the type of drugs contributing to mixed drug or multiple drug overdose deaths; • Completion of informative data linkages between (1) health outcomes results and treatment services utilized and where possible, the results of treatment; and (2) prescription monitoring data and health and socioeconomic indicators; • Connection of persons with opioid use disorder utilizing public health services to education, overdose prevention awareness, healthcare resources and treatment services; • Interruption of the transmission of Hepatitis C virus among people currently using injection drugs/opioids through linkages to care and harm reduction programming; • Provision of annual trainings to medical societies and academic programs about the hazards associated with prescription pain medication use and implementation of harm reduction strategies.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
