In collaboration with the Delaware Division of Forensic Science (DFS), the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) announces the addition of suspected drug overdose death counts to the agency's publicly available My Healthy Community (MHC) data dashboard. These data can be viewed on the Drug Overdose Deaths tab within the Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder section of MHC.
Suspected drug overdose death counts are an early signal of changing trends in Delaware's opioid overdose epidemic. Suspected drug overdose deaths based on forensic investigator scene impressions are reported to DPH within a week of occurrence and are considered preliminary. Further information from autopsies, toxicology results, and death diagnosis coding will likely result to a final count of drug overdose death that may differ from the initial estimates of suspected drug overdose deaths. The annual total number of drug overdose deaths of Delaware residents is available on MHC following the finalization of death certificate data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics and the Delaware Health Statistics Center.
Drug overdose deaths continue to occur in alarming numbers. In the first half of 2023, 247 suspected drug overdose deaths occurred in Delaware, consistent with the trend in 2022 with 255 drug overdose deaths occurring in Delaware during the same timeframe. Monthly data on the data dashboard reflect the recent record high counts in November and December 2022, and January 2023, that were reported by DPH and DFS earlier this year.
The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services currently publishes the year-to-date total number of suspected overdose deaths on the homepage of its website and HelpisHereDE.com.
The My Healthy Community (MHC) data platform presents indicators of health outcomes to the public and has implemented an innovative method to facilitate the presentation of health, demographic, and social determinant of health data in Delaware. The software provides an extensive framework for integrating data sets, generating analyses and visualizations, and managing both public and internal reports. The CDC's Overdose Data to Action grant funded the addition of the suspected drug overdose death data to the dashboard.
Republished courtesy of DHSS