Lance Emberling, lead investigator at the Union County Coroner’s Office, said Union County is currently seeing fewer fatal overdoses than it has in a decade.
According to statistics from the Union County Coroner’s Office, in the decade between 2014 and 2023, Union County had 76 accidental fatal overdoses, with just six in 2023 and only one through the first two months of this year.
“I think it is because of Narcan distribution and community interventions,” Emberling said. Narcan is a nasal spray of Naloxone, designed to rapidly reverse the effects of a life-threatening opioid emergency.
Narcan is used to revive someone during an overdose from many prescription pain medications or street drugs such as fentanyl.
Officials said it is impossible to know the exact reason why there are fewer local overdoses, but they believe that it is due to the efforts of the local health department’s Narcan distribution program that there is a decrease in fatal overdoses.
“We would also say we are cautiously optimistic with the decrease,” said Jennifer Thrush, public information officer with the Union County Health Department. “We often measure the success of prevention efforts at a system level using trends over time, often three to five year periods. But, similar to Mr. Emberling we hope we are witnessing the fruits of our labor.”
Other elements of the health department’s plan include increasing opportunities for the safe disposal of prescription medications, monitoring for overdose spikes, a follow-up education program provided to patients by EMS, a nationally recognized locking pill bottle pilot project and education and awareness campaigns. These campaigns counter stigma, warn of the increasing presence of fentanyl in communities and emphasize support and treatment options.
Officials said there are more local individuals that die of an overdose than they know about. A user that lives in Union County could drive to Franklin County to buy drugs and overdose there. Emberling said Union County officials will not be made aware of an out-of-county situation like that, meaning it is not included on the local report.
Emberling said that in 2016, the county began seeing an increase in fentanyl overdose incidents. Additionally, he said local, state and federal officials cracked down on doctors over-prescribing painkillers, driving individuals to use drugs like heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines.
Ally Collette, an investigator with the Union County Coroner’s Office, works to keep track not only of the fatal overdoses, but the non-fatal overdoses, and the use of Narcan. Collette does this work in conjunction with several coalitions – the Drug Overdose Prevention Coalition, fatality review boards and Overdose Detection and Mapping Application Program (ODMAP).
Collette said that she does not learn of every overdose or every instance of Narcan usage in the county, but she is trying to gather as much information as possible in an effort to spot trends and protect residents.
As part of the ODMAP, Collette works to keep track not only of the fatal overdoses, but the non-fatal overdoses, the use of Narcan and the demographics — age, sex, location and circumstances — for each reported suspected overdose.
According to Collette’s statistics, in 2020 the county saw 64 total overdoses, with nine of them fatal.
One thing Collette stressed is that some people do still die, even if they have received Narcan. While total overdoses aren’t apparently decreasing, fatal overdoses appear to be going down. In 2020, the county had nine fatal overdoses. In five of them, Narcan had been administered.
In 2021, there were 59 total overdoses, 30 uses of Narcan and 12 fatalities. Of the 12 fatalities, there were seven that received Narcan. In 2022, there were 39 overdoses, 15 uses of Narcan and nine fatalities. Of the nine fatalities, there were three that received Narcan. In 2023, there were 65 total overdoses, 33 uses of Narcan and six fatalities. Of the fatalities, only one had received Narcan.
“The biggest thing people need to understand is that Narcan is not the treatment,” Collette said. “It is a carryover to get you to the treatment if you are experiencing an opioid overdose event.”
Health department officials want individuals in the community to know they are working hard to continue the downward trend of fatalities.
“We have been working closely with many local partners to help prevent overdoses, break the stigma, and share the message that there is hope, there is help,” Shawn Sech, director of health promotion and planning for the Union County Health Department, said.