An opioid crisis that knows no bounds is the focus of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s visit to Indian country.
Price's visit spans Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and he met with Pawnee and Cherokee nation leaders during that time. Chief Bill John Baker said enough prescription painkillers are shipped into the Cherokee Nation for every man, woman and child to have 153 doses. Baker also said 40 percent of foster care cases involve families fighting opioid addiction.
"We have babies being born in our hospital on a monthly basis having to be life-flighted to Tulsa because they entered the world — at no fault of their own — with these powerful drugs in their system," Baker said.
The HHS opioid strategy includes providing resources for addiction prevention, treatment and recovery, pain management research and evaluating how America treats pain. Price said adjusting prescribing guidelines is a key step and something that came up during his visit the the pharmacy in the Cherokees’ Hastings Hospital.
"We talked about what's being done to make certain the physicians there are prescribing opioids only when necessary and, when necessary, only the right number and amount," Price said. "So, decreasing the number and making certain that invididuals who receive those prescriptions absolutely need them."
Price said HHS will work to help tribes find financial resources and access overdose-reversing drugs like Naloxone and Narcan. The real challenge comes after first responders administer those drugs.
"There's a hole between the reversal of that overdose and then moving that individual with warm hands into a treatment and recovery process," Price said.
HHS is developing ways to train first responders to refer people who overdose to treatment. Price complimented the Cherokee Nation’s work on opioid addiction as a model for the nation.
Also discussed during Price's visit were ways the tribes and federal government can continue partnerships to get the most out of tribal and federal dollars. Baker said some needs Price will take back to Washington are budget requests for 2019, including funding to complete a 469,000 square foot addition to Hastings Hospital due to open in September 2019.
