Katy Edition | May 2022

County with about 20 prescriptions being issued for every 100 residents in Fort Bend County, based on the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Pre- vention data. Waller County had an average of 4 pre- scriptions issued for every 100 residents. The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office said via email while narcotic encounters, or instances in which officers encounter drugs, did decline during the pandemic, they are starting to rise again. “Narcotic-related encounters within Fort Bend County dipped for a period of time during the height

increased financial stresses and isolation. Varisco said he believes the drastic changes to health care for individuals experiencing addiction undid recovery work performed for patients before the pandemic. According to the Treatment Episode Data Set, which compiles national patient discharges from treatment for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, detoxification treat- ment discharges became less common from 2016- 19, when detoxification discharges decreased from 20% of all discharges to 16%. However, the patient

THE CRISIS

State funding and educational resources were implemented to curb opioid addiction and overdoses. SETTLEMENTS TO ROLL OUT Harris County: $15 million

of the pandemic,” said Brad Whichard, special investigations division captain for the sheriff’s office. “While it can be surmised that decreased traffic in general attributed to the reduction, we are seeing encounters return to prepandemic levels.”

completion rate of detoxifica- tion treatment remained stable with fewer than half of patients completing treatment. “When you have a destabi- lizing event like a global pan- demic, [vulnerabilities in health structures] become more evi- dent,” Varisco said.

Fort Bend County: $1.5 million

“TOBE HONESTWITH YOU, I WAS NEVER SCAREDOF ANYTHING. IT DIDN’TMATTER; I WANTED IT AS STRONGAS I COULD GET IT. FENTANYL SCARESME.”

Waller County: $126,206 Katy: $52,467 Fulshear: $5,272

Local cities and counties are expected to receive funds from state settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. SETTLEMENT FUNDING USES

Reported opioid overdose deaths rose 25% from 2019 to 2020 in Texas, per the NCHS. James Langabeer, director of Houston Emergency Opioid Engagement System, the larg- est opioid treatment program in Harris County, said what happens to the body during an overdose can lead to death. “Basically, opioids depresses your respiratory sys- tem to where you almost aren’t taking any breaths per minute,” Langabeer said. According to the CDC, synthetic opioids, like fen- tanyl, have been one of the major driving forces in the rise of overdose deaths. One reason for this is fen- tanyl is unknowingly being put into other drugs, said Les McColgin, a liaison for sobering center Houston Recovery Center who was addicted to opioids and used them on and off for 35 years. “To be honest with you, I was never scared of any- thing. It didn’t matter; I wanted it as strong as I could get it. [Fentanyl] scares me,” McColgin said. Meanwhile, the number of reported opioid over- dose calls the Katy Fire Department responds to within Katy’s city limits has risen since 2017, as has the percentage of those calls that resulted in an emergency roomvisit. Despite this increase, the KFD had only 38 opioid-related calls to service in 2021. “I don’t believe it’s really been an issue for us,” said Dana Massey, assistant fire chief of emergency med- ical services for the KFD. “It’s kind of a joke around here that we live inside a bubble inside the city limits of Katy. I know right outside the city limits they’ve gone way up.” Massey attributes the lack of calls to the city hav- ing mental health officers who help during and after an overdose crisis as well as residents’ fear of law enforcement as police officers also respond to sus- pected overdose calls. “People are afraid to call for their loved ones in fear of law enforcement, so they throw them in the car and drive,” Massey said. Pandemiceectson treatment Varisco described several underlying causes of substance use disorders the pandemic has exac- erbated, including patient access to treatment,

With in-person treatment at risk due to the coronavirus, health care centers went remote in 2020. Many centers were lim- ited to offering substance use disorder care through telehealth services as opposed to in-per- son and personal programs, complicating opioid recovery for patients. Henry Holland, the public relations subcommittee chair for Houston Narcotics Anonymous, said the nonprofit adapted to pandemic restrictions by using Zoom and its phone line for meetings. “The struggle came with the disconnect that you’d normally get with meeting a person in person versus meeting a person virtually,” Holland said. “It didn’t interrupt how we function; it didn’t interrupt the access to ameeting. It did not interrupt the ability for sponsors and sponsees to interact with one another.” Additionally, at the beginning of the pandemic, Varisco said there was some confusion about what treatments were acceptable. A 2020 memo from Phil Wilson, the Texas Health and Human Services Com- mission executive commissioner, said buprenor- phine could be prescribed virtually, but methadone required a face-to-face evaluation. According to the SAMHSA, buprenorphine and methadone are FDA-approved drugs used in combi- nation with counseling to treat opioid use disorders. “I don’t know if [the policy] was well understood by providers, and that led to lapses in our treatment,” Varisco said. Government solutions State and county entities are working to address the opioid epidemic and the effects the pandemic had on recovery through local funding, law enforce- ment resources and increased education surround- ing opioid misuse. Many officials agree the use of Narcan, a nasal spray that can administer naloxone during suspected overdoses, is something that should be encouraged and used by emergency agencies. Langabeer did note there has been an increase in how many doses are having to be administered to someone who has overdosed. “Instead [of] one [dose of Narcan], we are often

LES MCCOLGIN, LIAISON FOR HOUSTON RECOVERY CENTER

Community drug disposal programs

Youth-focused education programs

Expanded telehealth to increase access to treatment

Fellowships for addiction medicine specialists

Expanded first responder and law enforcement training

FIND HELP Call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline at 800-662-4357 or visit www.samhsa.gov for resources and treatment.

CONTINUED FROM 1

as many of us have been over the past two years, we see increased vulnerability in our communities to opioid use and other forms of substance misuse.” With increased isolation and financial stresses, the pandemic further exacerbated struggles against the opioid epidemic in Texas. Recovery treatment transitioned into less effective online services, and access to quality treatment became more compli- cated, local experts said. Opioidusagevaries Inthe late 1990s, pharmaceutical companiesbegan marketing prescription opioid pain relievers as drugs that were not as addictive as previously thought, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. As a result, these drugs, which had formerly been prescribed only to treat acute pain, became the pre- scription of choice to treat chronic, long-term pain. In 2020, a little more than 37 prescriptions were issued on average for every 100 residents in Harris

COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM