Kern’s 2022 opioid overdose rate 83% higher than state rate; health department response includes free Narcan at mobile clinic
WASCO, Calif. (KGET) – Kern County teenagers are dying from opioid overdoses at a rate almost double the state figure.
A leading contributor is, of course, illicit fentanyl, counterfeited to look like oxycontin or other prescription painkillers. In many cases, however, teens and other users are getting the real thing – the doctor prescribed stuff that finds its way to the streets, where it often proves just as dangerous as the unregulated, basement-manufactured varieties.
Controlling the distribution of opioids, both pharmaceutically controlled and illicitly produced, is the job of law enforcement and other government agencies. But getting the word out is, to a great extent, the calling and responsibility of local officials.
Local officials like the Kern County Department of Public Health.
DPH has, since 2018, operated a 38-foot RV, outfitted as a medical mobile unit. The $350,000, 285-square-foot vehicle is capable of a range of medical services, from vaccinations to STD testing to pap smears.
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As of May 1, another crucial service was added – Narcan training and distribution. Narcan, brand name for Naloxone, is an opioid-overdose reversal drug – a nasal spray that can be administered by anyone, with minimal training.
“Administering Narcan if you are not having an opioid overdose will not hurt you,” said Kim Hernandez of the county Department of Public Health, “Administering Narcan if you are can save your life.”
The timing is right for this mobile unit, which is stationed in a different Kern County town about 14 days out of the month, from Taft to Ridgecrest. On Wednesday it was in Wasco, outside the farm town’s Kern County library branch.
In 2022, the most recent year for which complete data is available, Kern County doctors prescribed 376,217 opioid painkillers – 43% higher than the state overall – resulting in 675 opioid-related ER visits – 32% higher than statewide – and 308 opioid overdose deaths – 83% higher than the state as a whole.
Among the victims, were children. In 2022, seven Kern County teens between the ages of 14 and 17 died of opioid overdoses. That’s 2.8 child opioid deaths per 100,000 population, almost double the state rate of 1 per 100,000. Over a three year period, 2020 to 2022, 17 Kern County children have suffered fatal overdoses. In the three years prior to that, only two such overdoses occurred.
“We have our mobile health vehicles traveling around the communities of Kern County,” said Public Health spokeswoman Michelle Corson. “Now we’re offering free Narcan and training. We want to get into the neighborhoods where oftentimes the transportation is a barrier for some families.”
The number of Kern County fentanyl deaths have more than doubled since 2020, when according to the coroner, 125 people suffered fatal fentanyl overdoses. 232 died in 2021, 252 in 2022 and 297 in 2023.
It’s not stopping anytime soon, it seems, making programs like the public health medical unit a much needed part of the solution. A small part, but a part nonetheless.
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