With 85 dead from drug overdose, state website tackles heroin addiction

Addiction has many faces and many names. 

Last year, it claimed the lives of 308 Delawareans. So far this year, 85 people have died. And the death toll continues to rise with the spread of heroin laced with fentanyl, a powdery white substance considered 50 times more potent.

"This is unconscionable," said Michael Barbieri, director of the state Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. "This is not something we should accept."

State officials hope that better information and education will make a difference in preventing the spread of addiction. HelpIsHereDE.com, which relaunched Tuesday, hopes to do just that.

The website, housed under the state Department of Health and Social Services, introduces viewers to real people who have each been affected by heroin.

Police officers, parents, people in recovery and others answer basic questions in video interviews to debunk the stigma of addiction and help people understand it takes many shapes.

"The disease of addiction had me doing things that I really didn't want to do as far as becoming a thief, stealing," said a woman identified as Allison in videos. "I lied to my mother. Using drugs and the lifestyle was more important than being a good daughter and to be a role model for my other two siblings."

WHAT'S HAPPENING:Heroin: Delaware's deadly crisis

MORE COVERAGE:Where Delaware gets its heroin

In sharing these stories, the state hopes to reach those in the throes of addiction, along with families and healthcare providers looking to help them. Nearly every page on the website houses a running list of prevention programs, inpatient and outpatient treatment, detox locations and education services.

The News Journal has chronicled Delaware's heroin epidemic in a series of stories identifying new efforts by law enforcement to increase access to treatment, the successes of medication-assisted treatment and the stories of people trying to right their lives after addiction.

Parents of those suffering from addiction and those seeking help have repeatedly said the biggest challenge in Delaware is access to treatment. Two police departments launched programs aimed at streamlining that process and providers in the state have tried to make the most of limited funding to expand services.

Don Keister, who lost his son to addiction in 2012, remembers sitting in front a computer looking for answers once he and his wife realized their child was addicted to heroin. But help was hard to find. 

"It's so important that families have a place they can find information, where they can get help and what they can do because you can get so lost in trying to figure out how to help your child," said Keister, who went on to found atTAcK Addiction, a grassroots nonprofit aimed at ending addiction in Delaware. 

The state is in the process of adding available hospital and treatment beds in real-time on its renovated website, said Emily Knearl, a spokeswoman with DHSS.

Many of these website changes came at the request of Delawareans struggling to find necessary information on the old website, which garnered about 300,000 hits in 2½ years, Knearl added. The state will continue to welcome feedback on the new site, she said.

"We kept hearing over and over again, 'I didn't know the website existed,'" Knearl said. "Part of this effort is letting people know it's even here."

The relaunch of the website also comes coupled with an $80,000 statewide marketing campaign to hit billboards, buses and social media next month, as well as targeted efforts in Sussex County grocery stores, said Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the state Division of Public Health. 

The goal is to let Delawareans know they can "get help now" and aid them in that process, she said. The three words, which turn hot pink when highlighted, greet website users, as well as the two statewide hotlines and 911, which appear before consumers even get to the homepage.

The state also wants this website to focus on doctors and health care providers who serve as some of the first people able to identify someone who may be struggling with addiction.

A specific page dedicated to health care providers gives doctors, nurses and others downloadable documents and screening tools to use in their offices, as well as more information on the new regulations passed by the state to limit the safe prescription of opioids.

WHAT WE KNOW:As Delaware heroin deaths rise, more treatment options sought

SPIKING CRISIS:Delaware fears more heroin overdoses

These regulations, made effective April 1, require practitioners to obtain written consent from patients that describe the risks associated with opioids, why they were prescribed to them in the first place and possible alternatives to the provided prescription.

"We know that the explosion in pain medication prescribing has been the key driver in the opioid addiction we're dealing with now," Rattay said.

Because nearly 80 percent of heroin users report starting with legally prescribed opioids, according to the state, these policies are even more paramount to stopping the spread of addiction, she said.

So is expanding treatment as fast as possible, Barbieri said.

"We're not going to be able to grow fast enough to meet the demand," Barbieri said. "But we're going to continue to chase that."

That's because lives depend on it, especially for a state deemed in crisis mode by state officials. 

The voices of those struggling with addiction – and those who have made it out on the other side – are the driving force behind many of the state's efforts. 

"I have no idea when I take (drugs) again, is that going to be four years (of addiction), four days or is it going to be 40 years? Or am I just going to die of an overdose?" a man identified as Zach tells the camera. "It's really a matter of life or death for me."

Contact Brittany Horn at (302) 324-2771 or bhorn@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @brittanyhorn.