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North Sound ACH

North Sound Accountable Community of Health

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Snohomish County Releases Report on Opioid Misuse

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released January 9, the Snohomish Health District estimates that between 5,000 and 10,000 people in Snohomish County are suffering from opioid use disorder. It’s likely that another 35,000 to 80,000 people are misusing opioids.
 
“We focused on opioid misuse and opioid use disorder because they are considered the two ends of the spectrum for diagnosable patterns that can lead to overdose and death,” said Dr. Mark Beatty, health officer for the Snohomish Health District. “This data will aid the Health District and the Opioid Response Multi-agency Coordination Group with evidence-based decision making, assessment of interventions, and other planning purposes.”

This data is the result of several months of in-depth research and analysis completed by health officer Dr. Mark Beatty. In his report, Opioid Use Disorder and Opioid Misuse in Snohomish County: Using Capture-Recapture to Estimate the Burden of Disease, Dr. Beatty applied a method originally created to estimate wildlife populations and recently used to estimate the prevalence of kidney disease.

Disease burden estimates are challenging to complete in populations that are difficult to identify or pinpoint. It becomes increasingly more complex when diseases like opioid use disorder are not a notifiable condition, such as measles or whooping cough. While the published literature is sparse, it’s possible to use surveillance for opioid events in order to estimate the disease burden. This requires an additional method known as capture-recapture.

[Click here to view an overview of capture-recapture.]

For this method, Dr. Beatty accessed FirstWatch—a proprietary record management system used for EMS calls across the county—to pull data for all overdose calls recorded in July 2018. During that month, there were 73 opioid-related overdoses identified. Utilizing data compiled by Providence Regional Medical Center Everett and the Health District, made possible through a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant funded through the Washington State Department of Health, Dr. Beatty then reviewed patients seen in the emergency department. Of those 29 overdose patients at the hospital, 18 were also found in the FirstWatch data. That number translates into approximately 1,400 individuals in Snohomish County hospitalized annually because of opioids.

Using a model published by the CDC that estimates for every one death there are 32 emergency department visits for misuse and abuse, Dr. Beatty modified the calculations using Snohomish County estimates identified from the capture-recapture study.

For more information on efforts being done through the Opioid Response MAC Group, please go to www.snohomishoverdoseprevention.com. This website and accompanying social media accounts were developed to be a one-stop shop for resources. Whether trying to understand the problem, prevent addiction, or save a life, this is a place to find information for that first next step. 

Gratitude and Celebration

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November is Native American Heritage Month, proclaimed by Governor Inslee as a time to “honor the unique heritage of this continent’s First People and reaffirm the commitment to respect each tribe’s sovereignty and cultural identity.”  We give thanks for the leadership of the tribes and their approach to whole person care. Our team continues to learn from them and aim to grow those practices in other parts of the North Sound region.

While the media focuses on the day after Thanksgiving as “Black Friday” we hope you will join us in two other (more important) ways. First, Washington is one of several states that celebrates the day after Thanksgiving as Native American Heritage Day, naming it a state and school holiday. But the holiday is only one part; the proclamation also calls for educating students about the history achievements, and contributions of the tribes. Washington is rich in its 29 tribes and you can learn more about each tribe at this link. Spend at least part of your day learning about the Washington’s tribes, their history and culture.

Second, the day after Thanksgiving is a day where we are called to Opt-Outside. You can #optoutside or check out this link at the Nature Conservancy to find ways to get out and connect to the outdoors. The tribes we work with have known the connection between nature and health since time immemorial, and continue to show leadership in positioning the health of our communities, ecosystems, and wildlife as inextricably linked. They might encourage us to ‘Opt Outside’ every day to find the path to our wellness and wholeness. 

We wish you wellness and gratitude this week, and hope you will celebrate your connectedness to others who were here before us, are here in our communities now, and the amazing land that surrounds us. 

Liz

Equality vs. Equity

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The North Sound ACH team will be traveling to Chicago in April to attend Equity Summit 2018.  More information can be found on the event here.

Equality vs. Equity

As we prepare for the 2018 Equity Summit, we continue to explore the concepts of equality and equity. Equality is the equal distribution of resources, while equity focuses on providing for those based on need, in order to gain equality. Achieving health equity requires collaboration and collective action.

In our work, equity and equal opportunity are inextricably linked.  We want all communities to be healthy and connected, but different communities have different structures which interact in different ways, to produce different outcomes. Structures can be cultural, physical or social. The placement of these structures in our lives can take us where we want to go, or they can prohibit us from getting where we’d like to be. Achieving equity requires creating targeted interventions to adjust or create structures that work for everyone. In our work, we pull from Targeted Universalism and Dr. John Powell’s theory that through these targeted interventions, we can affirmatively build structures to produce the better outcomes for everyone.

Would you like to know more about equity? The following resources can help give a better understanding of the root causes of health inequity.

Roots of Health Inequity: A web-based online learning collaborative

This course provides an online learning environment from which to explore the root causes of inequity in the distribution of disease, illness, and death.

Waiting For Health Equity

This graphic novel contextualizes health equity issues using both historical and personal perspectives.

Unnatural Causes

A seven-part documentary series exploring racial and socioeconomic inequalities in health.

Targeted Universalism

The UC Berkeley HAAS Institute and Dr. John Powell’s theory of Targeted Universalism.

Please feel free to connect with our team at the North Sound ACH if you are interested in screening any part of Unnatural Causes or having a community discussion on equity. We are able to help facilitate or support a community conversation. Email voices@northsoundach.org or send us a message on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/northsoundach.