AUSTIN (KXAN) — For the 3rd 12 months in a row, drug overdoses are the main explanation for unintended demise in Travis County. That will likely be printed by way of the Scientific Examiner Thursday afternoon with the discharge of the 2023 Scientific Examiner Document.
KXAN solely gained a complicated replica.
The record displays that during 2023, 486 other people died of overdoses in Travis County. That’s up from 417 other people the 12 months prior. Taking a look in particular at fentanyl-related deaths, there have been 279 in the latest record in comparison to 245 in 2022.
“The record is at all times a type of grim measure of ways dangerous the overdose disaster is in Travis County,” County Pass judgement on Andy Brown mentioned.
Whilst the numbers are an building up from 2022 to 2023, the proportion wherein they climbed is much less dramatic than it used to be from 2021 to 2022. In 2021, there have been 118 fentanyl-related deaths.
Brown contributed that to such things as extra get right of entry to to naloxone — an overdose reversal drugs — and extra emphasis from the county on restoration housing.
Brown additionally mentioned the county signed on with a gaggle that may assist it acquire information on non-fatal overdoses only a couple weeks in the past. That corporate will use EMS, Scientific Examiner and self reported information to present the county a extra transparent image of the issue.
“I believe after we get that information up and working we can see the ratio between overdoses that didn’t lead to demise and deaths from overdose. And I believe that may in reality tell our public well being paintings, whether or not it’s operating or now not,” Brown mentioned.
Households of sufferers soliciting for extra assets
We introduced the numbers each to Carilu Bell and Stefanie Turner, either one of whom have misplaced sons to fentanyl and at the moment are a part of a gaggle known as Texas Towards Fentanyl.
“It’s unhappy. It’s heartbreaking. One thing must were completed a very long time in the past,” answered Bell, who misplaced her son, Casey, to fentanyl virtually 3 years in the past. We additionally talked to Bell when the bleak fentanyl-related demise information used to be launched remaining 12 months.
Casey Copeland died of fentanyl poisoning in 2021. (KXAN picture/Grace Reader)
“That is the best risk on our country, but it’s simply now not understood, it’s now not mentioned. We want to enlarge this message, enlarge this voice and transfer sooner. We want to have a COVID-like reaction,” Turner, the president of Texas Towards Fentanyl, mentioned.
That’s the place the county is, as soon as once more, calling on state companions to assist — by way of placing investment into schooling and assets and legalizing fentanyl take a look at strips, which is able to assist any individual locate the deadly drug.
2022 REPORT: Drug overdoses main explanation for Travis County unintended deaths
“The sorrowful factor is that lets do various things to forestall the ones deaths that we’re now not doing on the state stage and we obviously want to do extra on the native stage, too, to handle what’s the quantity one in every of explanation for unintended demise in Travis County once more in 2023,” Brown mentioned.
Within the period in-between, the households of sufferers of fentanyl poisoning are asking that folks in Travis County take an actual arduous take a look at those numbers, and get started instructing themselves on the right way to stay themselves and their family members protected.
“Discuss it. Don’t shy clear of it as it might be you this is impacted like this,” Bell mentioned.
Texas Towards Fentanyl is website hosting a “substance abuse and psychological well being” the town corridor Tuesday, Might 28 from 10 am-noon. You’ll be able to in finding extra details about the development or be informed extra in regards to the workforce right here.
