NC unveils plan to curb opioid overdose deaths
Today, Governor Roy Cooper and NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) Secretary Mandy Cohen released the state’s action plan to reduce deaths from opioid overdose in NC. The goal of North Carolina’s Opioid Action Plan is to reduce deaths from opioid poisoning by 20 percent by 2021. Opioid-related overdoses killed more than 12,000 North Carolinians between 1999 and 2016.
North Carolina’s Opioid Action Plan was developed with community partners to combat the opioid crisis. NCDHHS considers it to be a “living document” that will be updated as progress is achieved and new issues and solutions emerge.
Strategies in the plan include:
* Coordinating the state’s infrastructure to tackle the opioid crisis.
* Reducing the oversupply of prescription opioids.
* Reducing the diversion of prescription drugs and the flow of illicit drugs.
* Increasing community awareness and prevention.
* Making naloxone widely available.
* Expanding treatment and recovery systems of care.
* Measuring the effectiveness of these strategies based on results.
