Illinois Announces New Efforts To Prevent Opioid Overdoses

Opioid

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- There's another effort to combat the opioid crisis in Chicago.

The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) announced Monday the release of the "Overdose Prevention Site (OPS) Community Engagement Project Report" and the next steps for Opioid Overdose Prevention Sites on Chicago’s West Side.

State officials said the report found that 86 percent of Chicago’s West Side community members believed an Overdose Prevention Site would be beneficial to their West Side communities. Efforts for creating such a site will begin with the creation of a community advisory council to guide community education and engagement efforts and site planning activities.

“We are excited to announce the next steps in this extremely important initiative in one of the most highly affected areas for overdoses in Illinois,” said IDHS Secretary Grace B. Hou, in a statement. “This is the next step in the Overdose Prevention Site Community Engagement Project that Governor Pritzker announced in his executive order earlier this year and Chicago’s West Side neighborhood can absolutely benefit from these health centers that directly address opioid misuse.”

State officials said Chicago’s West Side has one the highest fatal and non-fatal opioid overdose rates in Illinois. Illinois Department of Public Health data shows that there were a total of 2,408 fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses in Chicago’s West Side  in 2018, and a total of 2,568 fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses in 2019.

In Chicago, the rate of overdose deaths from 2017 to 2019 increased among non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanic/Latinx individuals, and people in high economic hardship communities. Austin and North Lawndale were two of the communities with the highest number of overdose deaths in 2018. The majority of these deaths involved heroin and heroin mixed or tainted with fentanyl.

According to preliminary opioid overdose-related hospital and opioid overdose-related emergency department visits data, the disparities are continuing to rise in 2020, impacting some of the same communities. The emergency department visits rate is 6.3 times higher in black populations than Latinx populations, 7.4 times higher than white populations, and 7.5 times higher than Native American populations.

“I would like to thank the Prevention Partnership/West Side Heroin/Opioid Task Force and IDHS for their important work in our community in Chicago’s West Side neighborhood,” said Representative LaShawn K. Ford, in a statement. “I’m really excited to report the positive responses we received from West Side residents to our survey that an OPS would be beneficial and provide increased access to substance use treatment and recovery support services. I look forward to working with our teams on the next steps to open an OPS for our residents who need it most.”

Overdose prevention sites (OPS) are legally sanctioned health service facilities that allow people to use pre-obtained drugs under the supervision of trained staff. OPS give people a safe, clean place to use their drugs and staff who can step in immediately and respond if an overdose occurs. Studies show that an OPS can reduce overdoses, improve public safety, reduce infectious disease risks, and connect people to substance use treatment and recovery support services. Sanctioned OPSs are an asset to the community as health centers that are staffed by health professionals and offer a variety of immediate health services to people who use drugs, such as Hepatitis vaccinations and services that can reduce the harms of drug use. You can read the full report and analysis of the Overdose Prevention Site Community Engagement Project here.