Opioid overdose has been a major crisis in North Carolina for very many years. At least a large percentage of people in North Carolina have been affected by the opioid epidemic. The epidemic is affecting the community both directly and indirectly. Even the children attending school are being affected by the impact of an opioid overdose. The deaths resulting from these overdoses are rising daily.
According to NCDHHS research, more than 12000 people from North Carolina have died from an opioid overdose from 1999 to 2016. The recent number of deaths is not confirmed yet. Still, according to reports from hospitals in North Carolina, there have been many reported cases of opioid overdose, which keep on rising ( Darolia & Tyler , 2020) . The effects have become widespread in the state affecting both individuals and communities, which has drawn the World Health Organization's attention.
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The opioid crisis has created attention in North Carolina because it has proved to be a major crisis in the state. The crisis is harmful to children attending school because many are left orphans. Adults are overdosing and dying, leaving behind small children ( Darolia, & Tyler , 2020). It has caused these children to drop out of school and become exposed to neighborhood violence. It shows how indirectly the epidemic is affecting the community. The crimes in North Carolina are on the rise due to school dropouts. It is also causing trauma among families.
Another effect of the opioid crisis is that it diverts community resources supposed to help in other sectors. The state is now investing its resources in combating the epidemic, which means other projects have to be slowed down. A large amount of money is required to combat the epidemic. Since new facilities are to be built, more nurses are now required to help sick people and control the doses of opioids.
Due to the increasing cases of opioid overdoses, the North Carolina state has decided to come up with strategies to help combat the epidemic. The first measure that the state has come up with is to combat the epidemic is by drafting three laws concerning the epidemic. The first law is The Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention Act, which aims to reduce the addiction to opioids. The law gives a 5-day limit for any acute pain and 7 days for pain due to surgery ( NCDOJ , 2020) . The second law is The Synthetic Opioid Control Act which allows the authorities to go after traffickers of opioids.
The third law is The Heroin and Opioid Prevention and Enforcement Act, giving the authorities faster access to information regarding any heroin misusers or traffickers ( NCDOJ , 2020) . The state has taken a step in educating the community on the dangers of excessive use of opioids and their effects. They are creating awareness in gatherings and schools, which include many people. The doctors and nurses prescribing the opioids have also been told to be keen when prescribing the medications.
The state has made sure that there are treatments for the addicts of opioids. These treatments help in recovering the addicts, which helps reduce many effects that would occur if the addicts would have died ( NCDHHS , n.d.) . Apart from the state's three laws regarding opioids, the law enforcement has taken a step of arresting traffickers and those selling the opioids without licenses. The traffickers sell the opioids illegally at very cheap prices, which increases the number of abusers since the opioids are readily available. Curbing the traffickers means a reduced amount of illegal opioids in the community.
A suitable program that would help the local community involves all the members of the community. The program is supposed to be able to combat all the consequences of opioids. The program includes counseling, medication, and involvement in community activities. This kind of program will keep the opioids patients on track and even make them valuable to the community. The most valuable thing to put in a counseling program is that most opioids addicts overdose due to stress or their difficulties.
Counseling will help those people who are already addicts to opioids. When these people are enrolled in the program, they will be advising on their situation, which helps them fight the addiction. Counseling therapies also help people say what is on their minds and making them overdose on opioids ( Jones et al., 2020) . Addicts who enroll in the program will be provided with medications such as methadone and suboxone, which help treat the addiction. People undergoing the treatment may be asked to involve themselves in community activities such as cleaning and sports.
Public health nurses play a big role in the well-being of a community. Health issues affecting a community are supposed to be looked at and combated by public health nurses in that community. As a community leader, the public nurse is supposed to educate the community on healthy life choices. Also, the public nurse is responsible for making sure that the community is informed of the health choices and follows the required measures to keep them healthy.
As an advocate of the community, the public health nurse has the responsibility to make sure that the community has the resources it requires to fight the health problems. The public nurse is also supposed to make the State aware of the problems the community is facing. The public health nurse is also supposed to monitor the community's disease trend and find ways of curbing the diseases to change the community. When the public health nurses educate, advocate, and create awareness of the community's health problems, they change the community to be a safe place and save many lives.
References
Darolia, R., & Tyler, J. (2020, April 17). The opioid crisis and community-level spillovers onto children’s education . Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-opioid-crisis-and-community-level-spillovers-onto-childrens-education/
Jones, E. B., Staab, E. M., Wan, W., Quinn, M. T., Schaefer, C., Gedeon, S., ... & Laiteerapong, N. (2020). Addiction Treatment Capacity in Health Centers: The Role of Medicaid Reimbursement and Targeted Grant Funding. Psychiatric Services , 71 (7), 684-690.
NCDHHS. (n.d.). NCDHHS: North Carolina's opioid action plan . https://www.ncdhhs.gov/about/department-initiatives/opioid-epidemic/north-carolinas-opioid-action-plan
NCDOJ. (2020, January 8). An opioid epidemic with the North Carolina Department of Justice . NC DOJ. https://ncdoj.gov/responding-to-crime/opioid-epidemic/#:~:text=%20Opioid%20Crisis%20%201%20The%20Problem.%20Nearly,law%20enforcement,%20medical%20prescribers,%20the%20public...%20More
