The Franklin County Coroner's Office announced today a new plan to address opiate use in the area, creating the Franklin County Opiate Crisis Task Force.
Franklin County Coroner Anahi Ortiz said she's recently seen one to two overdose deaths a day and has needed to increase staff as a result.
"Our community wants more education, more efforts on prevention, less opiate prescribing, more work on recovery," Ortiz said. "We will be addressing all of these and more."
The Opiate Task Force is part of a county-wide effort to better coordinate solutions addressing the opiate epidemic.
“What’s good is we’re able to use the practices that we have in lots of other areas and adapt them to the opiate crisis to be able to be more flexible and nimble as we work together, cross coordinating and making sure we’re all talking together," said Franklin County Public Health Commissioner Susan Tilgner.
It will include the creation of a Rapid Response Team and partnerships with local law enforcement to track down where opiates come from and help addicts and families find the support they need.
