Delaware County joins widespread effort to prevent overdose fatalities, suicide

As a near matter of routine, expectant parents are given advice on reducing the danger of sudden infant-death syndrome, including putting a baby to sleep on its back, using a firm sleep surface and keeping stuffed animals out of the baby’s crib.  

The value of that advice was confirmed by efforts of Child Death Review and Fetal and Infant Mortality Review programs among participating states across the country, said Shelia Hiddleson, Delaware Public Health District commissioner.

In September, the Delaware County commissioners approved a resolution to participate in new, similar efforts by appointing Hiddleson to establish a Drug Overdose Fatality Review Committee and a Suicide Fatality Review Committee.

She said the most recent Ohio biennium budget included a provision allowing counties to create such committees if they choose.

After the budget approved, she said, "I sent an email to the county commissioners, and I said we are happy to do this. We're already working on some of these things."

For example, she said, the health district completes annual reports on drug overdoses as part of its community health-improvement plan.

From Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2020, 30 Delaware County residents – 19 men and 11 women – died from drug overdoses, the district said. Their ages ranged from 22 to 68, and 18 died in Delaware County, 10 in Franklin County and two in Morrow County, the district's report said. Fentanyl was the substance most commonly found among the deceased, it said.

"If you'd like to go ahead and pass that resolution, then we'll get it going,” Hiddleson told commissioners. “And (the committees) are structured almost identical to child fatality" committees that were formed in the early 2000s.

"The purpose of all these committees is to look for any types of trends and identify any community-based efforts that we could do to prevent these things from happening. ... to find out if there's something we can do and make sure then that we do it,” she said. “There's a commitment on the part of the members that if we identify something that needs something done, that someone will take the lead and do that. So that's kind of why we do the things that we do."

In the short term, she said, the health district will meet with agency partners who work with drug-overdose and suicide issues, looking at the new law to determine if they have the mechanisms needed to meet the reporting requirements.

The startup of committees around the state is being aided by the Ohio Department of Health's Drug Overdose Prevention Team, Violence and Injury Prevention Section, she said.

ODH public-information officer Megan Smith said the primary purpose of a fatality review board is to prevent such deaths by identifying trends, recommending programmatic and policy changes and strengthening coordinated community-response efforts.

"Committees review multiple data sources to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the circumstances surrounding a death. Data sources may include death certificates, coroner-medical examiner scene investigations and toxicology, medical history and law-enforcement information," Smith said.

The ODH overdose-prevention team is setting up a work group to train local personnel in starting the committees and is providing technical assistance to local health departments, Smith said.

In addition to a local health commissioner, each committee will include a physician, a law-enforcement official, a public-health official and a drug-addiction and mental-health official, Smith said.

Hiddleson said it's been demonstrated that awareness campaigns can be needed to address safety risks easily overlooked.

In another county, she said, children were playing in a flooded farm field, and a fatality resulted when a child was pulled into a drainage system.

"The community did a campaign and reminded people, 'Don't go outside and play in flooded fields,' " she said.

The National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention is based in Okemos, Michigan.

For more on the Child Death Review and Fetal and Infant Mortality Review programs, go to ncfrp.org/.

editorial@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekNews