Clark County health officials say the number of people who died from drug overdose so far this year is half what it was last fall. In fact, this year could be the least deadly in more than a decade.
As of the end of September, 23 people died from accidental drug overdose. That’s compared with 47 at the same time last year — a 51% drop.
Health officials point to increased recovery options, changes in how law enforcement responds to people with substance use disorder and shifting drug trends as some of the reasons why the number is down.
Shift in treatment
A decade ago, options for quick treatment outside of a hospital setting were scant for people in Clark County.
Beth Keeney, president and CEO at LifeSpring Health Systems, said there were long waiting lists for people to get medically managed withdrawal care, and there weren’t enough beds for people who needed them. It could take months to get the first appointment for outpatient treatment.
“Actually, beginning the treatment process took a lot longer than it does now,” she said.
Having to wait that long can be critical, even life-threatening for a person who needs to be in treatment. Keeney said that is especially true with synthetic fentanyl and other synthetic drugs in local supplies.
In recent years, officials and other local partners have brought a swath of new options online: more treatment centers and recovery homes, increased awareness and availability of naloxone and connections to help through the county’s syringe services program.
They’ve also formed new initiatives like Project CARE, a program that partners police agencies and other first responders with mental and medical health care providers to help get people into post-overdose treatment.
“Having that quick on-ramp to treatment allows for folks to come in when they're ready and not have to wait and not experience more significant consequences due to their substance use, including overdose fatality,” Keeney said.
Clark County Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel also pointed to changes in law enforcement, like helping people with low-level criminal drug offenses get into treatment. And Clark and Floyd County both have problem-solving courts to help intervene in the lives of people with substance use disorder.
He said police agencies have successfully targeted higher-level dealing operations to interrupt the drug supply.
Changing drug landscape
Officials say these positive shifts are likely not the only reason overdose deaths decreased.
Yazel said there’s been a shift in the types of drugs people are using in recent years. The 2010s were marked with a rise in opioid use, with overdose deaths climbing from around 30 a year in the early part of the decade to a peak of 89 in 2016.
Recently, people have moved toward stimulants, Yazel said. Used alone, those can be less likely to cause death by overdose.
Information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supports this. One national study said deaths involving stimulants have increased since 2011, but only around 16% of all overdose deaths between January 2021 and June 2024 involved stimulants alone.
Yazel said that doesn’t mean stimulants are less dangerous.
“It's more of a gradual decrease in heart function [and] other medical issues, until eventually they reach a critical point and pass away,” he said. “But on the other side of that, that also gives us a lot more time as a community to connect people with treatment resources and interventions.”
Health leaders don’t want to see any overdose deaths. But Yazel said it’s important to recognize positive trends, especially going into the holiday season.
“A little bit [of] extra momentum to our recovery folks and just to our community, to say, ‘Hey, we're doing well, let's see this through and support everybody through some of these tough times that are coming up,’” he said.
Yazel said the holidays can compound issues people with substance use disorder might face.
“There's just a lot of stressors that happen this time of year that are really challenging for everybody, but especially somebody who's dealing with some of these issues,” he said.
Yazel said people in crisis during the holidays or any time of year can call 988 to connect with resources.
Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.
