After about eight months of assessment, the Pew Charitable Trusts is making recommendations to Delaware’s Behavioral Health Consortium on how to further combat the opioid crisis. Pew’s data shows Delaware had the nation’s 5th highest overdose death rate in 2017 and less than half of the people in the state who need treatment for substance abuse disorder receive it.
It also shows a lack of access to the opioid addiction medication buprenorphine. According to Pew, only five of the state’s 258 physician assistants have obtained a waiver to prescribe it.
Pew Charitable Trusts Senior Associate Jerin Philip calls Delaware “an interesting case” in that it has a more severe substance abuse problem than most states, but is also doing more than most to address the issue.
“It is disconcerting because it just highlights the challenge that still remains,” said Philip.