By ERIN BECK
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources released an analysis of 2016 drug overdose deaths on Tuesday.
The DHHR, the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began working on the analysis in November. State officials also discussed findings last month, during a public comment meeting on the state’s opioid plan.
“The report clearly identifies factors that we can now say contribute to the ‘profile of an overdosed person’ in West Virginia, highlighting opportunities for intervention in the 12 months prior to their death,” Dr. Rahul Gupta, state health officer and commissioner of the DHHR’s Bureau for Public Health, said in a statement. “Since the analysis shows numerous missed opportunities, we now need to use these data to target specific interventions to help save lives of West Virginians.”
The 61-page analysis found:
Eighty-one percent of people who died of overdose interacted with at least one type of health care provider in the 12 months prior to their death.
Read the entire article: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/health/wv-dhhr-releases-overdose-data/article_dbcd2fa9-2254-5f36-a082-430ea9b6dff1.html
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