Overdose deaths in Allegheny, Westmoreland counties hit highest level since 2017 peak

Overdose deaths in Allegheny County rose last year to the highest level since they peaked in 2017, mirroring trends in Westmoreland County and Pennsylvania as a whole, according to statistics released Friday.

In 2021, 719 people in Allegheny County died of drug overdoses, accounting for a quarter of all cases investigated by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

That’s a 5% increase over drug-related deaths in the county in 2020.

“There are no words to express the anguish we all feel for the number of lives lost to the overdose crisis,” said Dr. Debra Bogen, Allegheny County health director.

Overdose deaths in the county, which was gripped hard by the nationwide opioid epidemic, began increasing quickly in 2014: from 306 that year to 424 the following year and 650 in 2016. Deaths peaked in 2017 at 747 before dropping by a third in 2018 to 492.

Since then, deaths have been creeping upward again, to 564 in 2019 and 689 in 2020.

A vast majority of overdose victims — about 80% — had more than one drug in their system when they died, said the medical examiner, Dr. Karl Williams. Fentanyl and cocaine were the most commonly found drugs regardless of whether toxicology turned up one drug or multiple drugs in a victim’s system.

Overdose deaths statewide also rose, though at a rate not quite as high as in Allegheny County: 5,319 deaths in 2021, a 3% increase over 2020. It’s the highest number of overdose deaths across the state since a peak of 5,425 in 2017.

“The devastating impacts of the addiction crisis continue to be deeply felt in all corners of the state and particularly here in Western Pennsylvania,” said Jen Smith, secretary of the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.

On Thursday, Smith and other DDAP officials were in Westmoreland County, where overdose deaths also rose: from 123 in 2020 to 166 in 2021, a 35% increase. Smith participated in a roundtable discussion with prevention specialists, treatment providers and members of the Westmoreland Drug and Alcohol Commission.

“The overdose crisis impacts each and every county in Pennsylvania, yet each county faces its own distinct challenges when fighting the disease of addiction,” said Colleen Hughes, executive director of the Westmoreland County organization.

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The stop in Westmoreland was part of a larger listening tour in which state officials are meeting with the local “boots on the ground” to better understand what community-level needs are.

“That is why it is so important to have the opportunity to sit at the table with state leaders,” Hughes said, “and share the unique circumstances and perspectives of those working day to day at the local level to provide intervention, prevention, case management, treatment and recovery supports. “

A similar roundtable was held Friday in Allegheny County.

Jim Phillips, who works in prevention programming through TCV Community Services, is part of an effort to provide prevention and intervention services in schools, an area he said is lacking.

He said that since the start of the pandemic, drug and alcohol use among Pittsburgh Public Schools students has nearly quadrupled.

He noted that such drug and alcohol use comes as there also is increased need for violence prevention measures and other supports for students, some of whom are struggling to overcome the challenges of the pandemic and community violence.

Phillips said there simply aren’t enough resources to meet those growing needs.

“From the state level, that’s what we need,” he said. “We need the resources to help these kids and families.”

The issue is not limited to the city: Whitehall police Chief Jason Gagorik said he has seen the same uptick.

“We noticed a significant increase in drug use and alcohol use in the middle school,” he said, adding that the pandemic seemed to have “exacerbated” drug and alcohol issues overall.

He agreed that people responding to the overdose crisis in the community need better resources but suggested the other key issue is communication among people performing similar work.

“We want to do it correctly. We want to get them connected to the proper services,” he said of his department’s efforts to help those suffering from substance use disorders. “The problem is we don’t seem to have many services out there.”

Some services, he said, apply only to city residents and don’t help individuals living in other parts of the county.

“None of us talk to each other, and we don’t sit in the same room,” said Kelley Kelley, who works with LEAD, a program that would collaborate with law enforcement to divert drug users from the criminal justice system to instead enter them into a long-term case management program.

She is one of several people who spoke about the unique approaches many in the community are taking to combat substance use disorders. Others spoke of efforts to distribute more naloxone, bring more drug prevention programs into schools, offer outreach through telemedicine and offer safe spaces for people to stay while they’re on waitlists for treatment.

Many shared similar obstacles, such as a lack of funding, lengthy waiting lists for people in need of treatment, poor communication among organizations with similar missions and challenges in hiring enough people to fully staff their organizations.

These concerns, Smith said, are “very similar” to what officials have heard in other parts of the state. Smith said the intent is to continue the listening tour and then share an overall synopsis with participants. From there, the agency will use that information to guide its strategic plan, which will be released next year.