These results just in on the impact that Project Lazarus and the Chronic Pain Initiative may have had in Wilkes County. Overdose deaths are down 69% in Wilkes County between 2009 and 2011. Wilkes is still a little higher than the national average, but nowhere near the 6th worst in the nation we were in 2008. At the same time, Wilkes had higher opioid prescribing than the state average, with less than one percent change in how many Wilkes residents received an opioid pain reliever (7.5% to 8% each month; state average is 5.8%). In 2011, not a single Wilkes County resident died from a prescription opioid from a prescriber within the county, down from 82% in 2008. Did these medications get safer? How did Wilkes County fundamentally alter the risk:benefit ratio of these medications?

A lot of factors go into this type of intervention and evaluation before we can be certain that Project Lazarus and the CPI caused these changes. We are undertaking a more thorough evaluation now, and looking at each component of the community-wide response to see what worked and what didn't. Click FOLLOW in the top right corner to sign up for our mailing list to be informed of the results.

Sources: Wilkes Co. Health Department; NC SCHS; NC CSRS; CDC Wonder

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