The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette
In 2016, more people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. than the total number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. Indiana opioid overdose deaths rose 52% between 2015 and 2016. New, comprehensive strategies were needed at the state and federal levels to deal with the ongoing crisis.
“I didn’t intend to make attacking the opioid epidemic a part of my agenda as governor,” Gov. Eric Holcomb wrote in a piece published in the Indianapolis Star in September 2017. “But, as I traveled the state leading up to the 2016 election and saw firsthand the devastating effects of opioid addiction — I couldn’t look away from the lives and communities I saw ravaged.”
Less than a year later, the state had a strategic plan, Next Level Recovery, to fight addiction with a community-based approach. Today, Indiana is reaping the benefits of the new laws, programs and funding associated with that effort.
Last month, the Indiana Department of Health reported drug overdose deaths fell by 5% in 2022 — the first reported drop in overdose fatalities in four years.
Fatal overdoses tumbled by 10% in Allen County — twice the state rate — and nonfatal overdoses plummeted by 28% in 2022 compared with 2021, Fort Wayne Police Capt. Kevin Hunter told The Journal Gazette last week.
Douglas Huntsinger, executive director of Drug Prevention, Treatment and Enforcement for Indiana, credits the state’s 20 recovery hubs that help Hoosiers find housing or employment, the expansion of residential treatment beds throughout Indiana and an increase in the distribution of naloxone — a drug that reverses opioid overdose — for the downward trend in deaths.
“Communities have recognized the urgency of this crisis and have joined forces to address it comprehensively,” he said in December’s Next Level Recovery Progress Report. “By combining our expertise, resources and perspectives, we’re not only saving more lives from overdose, but we’re creating a network of supports to aid individuals on their path to recovery.”
Allen County’s Hope and Recovery Team works closely with many local agencies to help residents access addiction treatment, including project.ME, the Indiana recovery hub for Allen and Whitley counties. Last month, the agency, staffed by former addicts, opened the area’s first drop-in recovery center at 2305 Broadway.
Huntsinger attended its grand opening.
“When I first met project.ME’s Aisha Diss, she had just started leading one of #Indiana’s first harm reduction street outreach teams,” Huntsinger posted on Facebook. “Fast forward a couple of years later, and we’re celebrating the opening of project.ME’s new drop-in center, made possible by Aisha’s passion and determination. This building opens even more opportunities for project. ME to serve Hoosiers in the NE region.”
In June, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration awarded project.ME nearly $300,000 to expand its Harm Reduction Street Outreach Program, which distributes naloxone to aid in the prevention of fatal overdoses and fentanyl test strips to screen for contamination of other drugs.
The YWCA of Northeast Indiana also received $2.2 million to renovate the former Don Hall’s Guesthouse and expand both its domestic violence shelter and residential addictions treatment center from a total capacity of 96 beds to 244 beds.
Diss told The Journal Gazette she isn’t surprised fatal and nonfatal overdoses have dropped in the state and Allen County. It shows the efforts of local organizations such as the Hope and Recovery Team, project.ME, Avenues Recovery and Fort Wayne Medical Society Alliance are working and more people are seeking rehabilitation from addiction.
Like Holcomb in 2016, those seeking to replace him as governor in January 2025 must recognize that addiction is a medical condition and not a moral failing. They should commit to continue providing programs and funding for addiction mitigation, as Holcomb has since 2017.
It took a crisis to force the state to act against the societal, economic and personal damage that addiction causes Indiana. Hoosiers should be thankful Holcomb and the General Assembly did so with resolve.
