This past Sunday, Moving Starke County Forward hosted an event for Overdose Awareness at Wythogan Park. The event honored the community’s first responders as well as featured moving testimony from a former addict who is now working to raise awareness and promote recovery. Continue reading
Moving Starke County Forward Schedules Overdose Awareness Vigil
Starke County is making strides in the war on drugs with regard to overdose deaths. Local health department officials say average of nine drug-related deaths were reported between 2008 and 2013, with numbers ranging between seven and 12 annually. Data from 2014 and 2015 indicates four overdoses, which is a significant drop. Continue reading
Moving Starke County Forward Hosts Overdose Awareness Service
Community members paused last night at Wythogan Park to celebrate the 61 Starke County lives lost to drug overdoses over the past seven years as well as those who are in long-term recovery. Aaron Kochar is the director of prevention and education at Porter-Starke Services. He says people are now more likely to die from a fatal overdose than from a car accident.
“Up until last year, if you died in an accident it was some sort of motor vehicle accident. Now it’s overdose. Another statistic that is concerning is the fact that while a number of people will die in overdose from heroin, in fact we’ve got about three times the number who will die from a prescription opioid overdose.” Continue reading
Substance Abuse Counselor Discusses Overdose Epidemic
Advocates and community members will pause tomorrow evening to remember the 61 lives lost to drug overdoses in the past seven years in Starke County. Aaron Kochar is a substance abuse counselor at Porter-Starke Services. He says methamphetamine used to be the biggest drug problem locally, but opioids and heroin have caught up.
Kochar says drug use is a significant problem. Continue reading
Overdose Awareness Day Event Planned in Starke County
Starke County holds the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of average accidental poisoning by exposure to drugs, medications and biological substances in 2009 and 2010. That’s according to mortality data from the Indiana State Department of Health. Local leaders are working to raise awareness of the problem. They’ve placed 61 ribbons on the lawn at IU Health Starke Hospital – one for each of the lives lost to drug overdose over the past seven years. Continue reading
