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    • Michigan is reducing overdose rates, but racial disparity is a concern
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    Michigan is reducing overdose rates, but racial disparity is a concern

    Online Niel Posted on

    Anna Rossow
    | Capital News Service

    While the opioid crisis continues to plague the US, Michigan’s overdose rate has declined in recent years.

    Health officials and lawmakers are addressing the crisis by expanding access to life-saving drugs and increasing support for substance use disorder treatments.

    Michigan has a lower overdose rate than the national average: The national rate per 100,000 people was 31.5, while the state rate was 28.2.

    “Since the pandemic ended, nationally and in Michigan, those numbers have gone down, but Michigan is doing much better than the national trend,” said Natasha Bagdasarian, the state’s chief medical officer. “We see the decline nationally, but our decline has been steeper.”

    According to the state Department of Health and Human Services, the number of overdose deaths in 2023 was 2,826, down from 3,096 in 2021.

    However, Bagdasarian pointed to a large racial disparity in overdoses and said the decline was mostly among White Michigan residents.

    In 2023, while the state’s overall overdose rate was 28.2 per 100,000 residents, the rate for white residents was 22.6, and for black residents it was 64.5.

    “One of the priorities is making sure we get these tools to the communities that are hardest hit, and also understanding how dangerous the supply of drugs is in different communities is really important,” Bagdasarian said.

    She chairs the Michigan Opioid Task Force, which began in 2022. The group includes staff from several state departments working to prevent drug abuse and make treatment more accessible.

    She said there are four pillars of the opioid response: prevention, risk reduction, treatment and recovery. Administering Narcan is part of harm reduction.

    Naloxone, the generic name for Narcan, is a highly effective life-saving drug that reverses overdoses.

    Gary Wadaga, director of Bay Ambulance in Baraga and a paramedic for 43 years, said his service used to get two calls a month for drug overdoses and that number has dropped to one.

    He said: “I really think our number of overdoses requiring an opiate overdose, which includes heroin, has been great. Our calls have been greatly reduced since Narcan became more readily available.”

    Wadaga said all paramedics carry Narcan with them and also have extra Narcan that they can leave with the patient or the patient’s family in case of a future emergency.

    “The scary part is that the opiate can survive the effects of Narcan,” Wadaga said. “If they’re really loaded and they get Narcan, they can get back to where they were before the Narcan pretty quickly.”

    Bibhas Singia, the vice president and medical director for hospital and residential services at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services, said Narcan will only reverse opioid overdoses, not all drugs.

    The organization has clinics in the Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Hastings, Holland and Traverse City areas.

    In an overdose, Singia said there is too much opioid in the brain. It depresses the part of the brain that signals the chest to breathe and breathing stops when this signal is suppressed.

    “What Narcan does is it gets into the bloodstream, it gets into the brain and then it dislodges the opioid that’s attached to the receptors and then it takes away the respiratory depressant activity of the opioid — and people are able to breathe again,” Singia said. .

    According to the Department of Health and Human Services, legislation to increase access to naloxone is currently under review.

    Experts say those who survive overdoses can suffer long-term mental and physical health problems.

    Physically, Singia said, overdosing can permanently damage parts of the brain, which can lead to a stroke later in life. It can also have harmful cardiovascular effects and permanently damage the heart muscles.

    Psychologically, Singia said, people can end up with different perspectives when they survive an overdose. Some may see it as a wake-up call, choosing to get help and attend support groups. Others may have symptoms of depression and feelings of helplessness.

    “I also don’t want us to lose sight of the very important effects of overdose on family members, the community and society,” he said.

    “If someone unfortunately dies of an overdose, it has extreme mental health effects on loved ones, on family members, on the community. Even if they survive, it can still lead to feelings of fear, anxiety, depression and worry with loved ones.”

    Bagdasarian said prevention and recovery efforts have allowed the rate to drop across the state. These include educating young people about substance abuse.

    She said the earlier in life people try, the more inclined they are to develop a substance abuse disorder later in life.

    For treatment, she said the task force tries to ensure access to resources such as medicine, transportation and housing. This includes ensuring that facilities providing care for people with these disorders are adequately staffed.

    She said reducing overdoses and increasing recovery is “by listening to the people who work on this problem every day, who work directly with clients and people with lived experience in every community in the state.”

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