EL PASO COUNTY — The medical experts at El Paso County Public Health are calling suicide and overdose deaths, leading health concerns in the community.
They are taking action to make the public more aware of the issues by launching two new on-line data dashboards for anyone to see.
“Timely, relevant, and credible data from a reliable source in our community, to paint the picture about the importance of these two health issues in El Paso County,” said El Paso County Public Health, Co-Medical Director, Dr. Bernadette Albanese.
The dashboards give the yearly numbers for suicides and overdose deaths and then break down the numbers that give insight into the complexity of the issues.
For example, you can see that overdose deaths attributed to illegal fentanyl was at just 7% in 2018.
Just four years later for 2022 the percentage jumps to 45%.
“This is a big, big, big player,” said Albanese.
Another data graphic shows suicide numbers were lowering before the pandemic, the went back up during the isolation, and since then they have stayed close to the same at around 185 a year.
“Flatlined. So, you can say, well, is that good because it's not going up? Yes, yes, it is. It's not good, that it's not coming down,” said Albanese.
The goal is to start conversations that can lead to strategies for bringing the numbers down.
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