Opioid crisis takes center stage at Kroc Center

Health care workers, first responders and a concerned public joined together Thursday for a daylong symposium to address North Idaho’s staggering opioid crisis.

“This is a great opportunity to spread awareness,” Panhandle Health public information officer Katherine Hoyer said. “One of our top priorities is to get a handle on this problem through community assessment. Reaching out to not only educate but hear best practices is a real opportunity for everyone involved.”

The all-day symposium at the Kroc Center in Coeur d’Alene was broken into three distinct categories: The first session at 10 a.m. was geared toward health care providers dealing with addicts in one-on-one scenarios. This education focused primarily on appropriate patient care and attention to pain management. It was led by Dr. Ben Perschau of Kootenai Health and Dr. Jessica Jameson of Axis Spine Center.

The second session focused on education for responders, including paramedics and professionals in emergency care. This section looked at challenges and best practices when responding to addiction issues, such as overdoses and uncovering warning signs. The panel included Jeff Lindsey of Bonner County EMS, Kelsey Orlando, project director of Panhandle Health Rural Communities Opioid Response, Scott Jones of the Phoenix’s Boise branch, and Kate Aguirre of Marimn Health.

The evening session was geared more toward the general public and featured two documentaries on the opioid epidemic, “Heroin(e)” and “Chasing the Dragon.” The panel then talked about how opioid addiction impacts the community. The panel featured Jones once again, as well as Kootenai County Coroner Lynn Acebedo and Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger.

“I think it’s great we have this education,” Wolfinger said. “It’s education we can deliver to the general public, and it’s a dialogue that needs to be had.”

He added that, while there is no easy fix on opioid addiction, big problems require big solutions.

“If we’re going to beat this,” Wolfinger said, “I think it takes the entire community to deal with it. When you look at other criminal activities in the community, it took the whole community to get it under control, and that’s what this will take.”

Orlando presented startling numbers to the audience: By county in North Idaho, Shoshone had 149 opioid prescriptions for every 100 people in 2015, meaning one-and-a-half prescription pills are in the county’s population for every resident. Kootenai had 86 for every 100 the same year.

Those numbers have since improved. In 2018, Shoshone County’s prescription rate per 100 people dropped to 112, while Kootenai’s dropped to 72.

“I don’t think we know enough yet to say for certain what factors impacted those numbers,” Orlando said. “There are a number of things that could contribute to it, but our timeframe of study is so short. We’re still in a preliminary phase, so we’re grabbing what information we can get right now. We’re absolutely glad to see a decrease, but we’ll need a few more years to know [the cause].”

Orlando added there was no quick fix, but the symposium was more about education and gathering support than about solving the problem overnight, adding that teamwork will ultimately lead to a solution, if one exists at all.

“We’re looking for anyone who is willing to work above their agency’s mission,” she said when asked about marshalling resources. “We’re looking for people working either directly — or even indirectly — with the local opioid use disorder problem that we have. And we’re looking for people who are willing to work with other community partners as well for a bigger community vision.”

During the event, Orlando compared the opioid epidemic to a popular river, with swimmers told the medicinal waters were potentially dangerous, the waterfall representing the risk of overdose and the shoreline representing community and family support. She said that when swimmers voluntarily come out of the river, they need to be greeted with comfort and care and medical attention, rather than legal consequences.

“People need to understand addiction is a disease,” she said. “Patients have no more control over their disease than they would with any other ailment, and we in the community need to understand that.”

Wolfinger said that the best advice he could give families, friends and co-workers of opioid addicts is to seek informed, professional help.

“An addict,” he said, “they’re not going to do it on their own. Whether it’s medically-assisted treatments or counseling or just programs to give the skills necessary to get through life. Seek professional help.”