Broadcast date: 5/4/2017
Deaths from drug overdoses have jumped in nearly every county across the US since 2007. Every community has been affected by this trend. Today, drug overdoses kill more than cars, guns, and falling.
Experts believe the trend is driven largely by an explosion in addiction to prescription painkillers. Since 1999, the U.S. has seen a dramatic increase in the number of pain medications, sedatives, and stimulants prescribed. And while these prescription painkillers are routinely used to treat moderate-to-severe pain following a surgery, injury, or for health conditions such as cancer, they are highly addictive and can be easily misused, and abused, and tragically have led too many accidental deaths.
Join host Kris Kington-Barker as she speaks with members of the San Luis Obispo County Opioid Safety Coalition about the integrated community-wide approach being taken to curb the opioid epidemic. Her guests will include, Ann McDowell, Epidemiologist for County of San Luis Obispo Public Health Department, Data Action Team Champion for the SLO Opioid Safety Coalition and Julianne Schmidt, LMFT, MH Therapist for County of San Luis Obispo Drug & Alcohol Services, Coordinator of the SLO Opioid Safety Coalition
Central Coast Voices is sponsored by ACTION for Healthy Communities in collaboration with KCBX and made possible through underwriting by Joan Gellert-Sargen.
