Thursday, April 30, 2015
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning and Trumbull county residents died from drug overdoses at a higher rate than residents statewide between 2008 and 2013, according to new data released Thursday by the Ohio Department of Health.
The state average between 2008 and 2013 was 15 drug-overdose deaths per 100,000 residents; in Mahoning County that figure was 20.1, and in Trumbull County it was 21.8. Columbiana County had an average rate of 14.3 deaths.
“While Mahoning County has kind of stayed where we are, with 48 [drug overdose deaths] in 2012 and 41 in 2013, it’s still way too many deaths,” said Brenda Heidinger,
associate director of the county mental health and recovery board.
“We have also gone from 19th in the state in [overdose deaths in] 2012 to 14th in the state in 2013, which concerns me and leads me to believe that we really need to educate people and look at alternatives to prevent these overdose deaths,” she said. “We’re just losing too many people.”
Read more about the situation in the tri-county area in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.