Jan. 15 event detailing North Texas drug abuse statistics posted online



The North Texas Community Health Collaborative’s (CHC) educational event on January 15 detailing drug abuse numbers in the region has now been posted online. Before 70-plus attendees, the CHC presented findings from its Regional Substance Abuse/Misuse Needs Assessment Report covering 2017.

The drug and alcohol abuse trends covered Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Erath, Grayson, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Navarro, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant and Wise counties.

Findings included:
• Seven North Texas counties have higher drug and alcohol death rates than the national average;
• Opioids were the most dispensed prescriptions in North Texas;
• More than 190,000 deaths were attributed to drugs/alcohol;
• 11 North Texas counties had higher death rates attributed to drugs/alcohol than the state average;
• More than 35,000 infants were born with positive toxicity for controlled substances.

Coordinated by the DFW Hospital Council (DFWHC) Foundation, the North Texas CHC represents 11 area health systems with a strategic goal of improving community health services over the next three years.

The complete report will be made public in February on the DFWHC Foundation’s Healthy North Texas website at http://www.healthyntexas.org/.

You can view the event here.

For information, please contact Dr. Sushma Sharma at ssharma@dfwhcfoundation.org.