The Tuscarawas County Health Department issued its 2024 annual report in April, finding unintentional drug overdoses cut by more than 50% from 2023 to 2024 as suicide rates reached a five-year high.
Dropping overdose rates
The county's overdose rate was on the rise in 2020 and 2021 before leveling out in 2022 and 2023. However, the rate was cut from 23 overdose deaths in 2023 down to 11 in 2024. The drop was due to increased access to Naloxone, a medicine that rapidly reverses overdoses, said Jennifer Demuth, the county's director of health promotion and community relations.
The department issued 533 free Naloxone or Narcan kits in 2022, she said. This number increased to 1,377 kits in 2024.
The key is to partner with other agencies to have the resources and the knowledge to get enough kits, and to know where you need to distribute them to help the most people, Demuth said.
"We can't solve the challenge of saving lives from overdoses by ourselves," she said. "What we've learned in the past couple of years of growing our Narcan distribution program is just how vital it is to reach out and work with our partners in the community to get the kits out and help save lives and meet people where they are to get those distributed."
Natalie Bollon, executive director of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board of Tuscarawas and Carroll Counties, agreed.
Beyond the Narcan distribution program, the agencies had peer supporters available to work with individuals with a substance abuse history, she said. The agencies also teamed up with first responders, law enforcement and clinicians to visit the homes of people who had overdosed in the prior week to provide them with resources and potentially bring them directly to treatment facilities.
"It was all hands on deck for years to try to decrease the number of overdoses and the number of overdose deaths," Bollon said.
The department started distributing Narcan kits at its headquarters in Dover in 2016, Demuth said. The agency is planning to expand this effort by opening at least one other distribution center by the end of 2025, including a location somewhere in the southern portion of the county.
The overall goal is to keep distribution at least at current levels to prevent overdose deaths, Demuth said.
“We'd like to give out at least another close to 1,400 kits in 2025, ideally, because we know every kit is potentially another life saved from accidental overdose," she said.
Rising suicide rates
Last year marked a five-year high for suicides in Tuscarawas County, with all of the 21 suicides being men, the majority of whom were 50 years of age or older.
In response, the county is focusing on this population in 2025 by addressing the stigma men have with mental health care, Demuth said. These efforts include a website, mantherapy.org, meant to use humor to address the stigma of mental health care among many men.
“We can use a campaign such as mantherapy.org to really normalize the idea that hey, it's OK to struggle and to reach out for help. We think it can go a long way toward preventing suicide,” she said.
The county is also having local Sheriff Orvis Campbell appear in videos sharing free mental health resources and encouraging men to seek help as another way overcome the stigma, she said.
Bollon agreed the stigma is a significant problem, especially given the more rural, agricultural nature of the county.
"I think stigma is the biggest barrier that we face," she said. "We knew that farmers were suiciding at a higher rate than other occupations. And farmers have a very much 'rub some dirt in it, pull yourself up by your bootstraps' mentality. And so how do we present mental health and depression in a way that is not weakness?"
The answer is to make the case that mental health is physical health and there can be biological and chemical changes in the brain that impact the way you feel, she said.
"When you take away the stigma of weakness or you don't talk about feelings and you begin to shift how our farmers and our men look at it, you make it much more likely for them to be able to consider treatment," Bollon said.
The department is also providing suicide prevention resources, including local crisis lines and national suicide hotlines, to courts and legal offices as well as medical offices. This is because the stress associated with divorces, separations or other domestic issues and negative medical diagnosis can increase suicide risks for this population, Demuth said.
The county is also holding trainings, known as QPR or Question, Persuade, Refer trainings, for community members that teach them how recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to question, persuade and refer someone to help.
The training teaches individuals to ask a peer, friend or family member, "I am concerned about you and I have to ask, are you thinking about suicide?" if concerns arise, Bollon said.
The training is about providing the initial outreach in times of potential crisis, she said.
"We're not asking them to be counselors," Bollon said. "We're just asking them to have their antenna up, ask the question, and then make that connection to a support."
