Statewide Iowa — Experts say that efforts to curb and treat opioid misuse are succeeding across Iowa.
A new report on opioid misuse from the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) finds expanded access to naloxone and increased options for medication-assisted treatment may be helping to address the opioid crisis in Iowa.
IDPH experts say that preliminary data shows that the number of deaths related to opioids has decreased. They theorize that a contributing factor could be the expanded availability of naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug. In just over a year, IDPH says they have distributed nearly 3,000 Narcan (naloxone) nasal spray kits to the public, Department of Corrections, EMS providers, hospital emergency departments and the Department of Public Safety.
While reducing overdose saves lives, the IDPH says it is important to note that treatment is needed for individuals with an opioid use disorder, if long-term change is going to occur. For that reason, a focus of IDPH has been on assisting communities with increasing availability of medication-assisted treatment. As a result, the number of healthcare professionals eligible to prescribe a certain type of medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders increased from 31 in 2015 to 115 in 2018. The number of Iowa sites capable of dispensing another form of medication-assisted treatment increased from eight locations in 2015 to 20 locations planned by mid-2019.
DeAnn Decker, Interim Behavioral Health Division Director for the IDPH says that they are very excited by the positive changes they’ve seen occur in the state, but she says IDPH can’t take all of the credit. According to Decker, these changes would not have been possible if it were not for the “dedicated providers, communities, and coalitions that recognized a need and made change happen.”
To read Iowa’s Opioid Crisis: An Update, visit http://bit.ly/2SANL0p.
