How bad is the opioid crisis in your backyard?

For years, the message has been the same from federal officials, the state, the county and more: The health crisis everyone has been talking about is the same — opioids.

Whether you are discussing prescription drugs or heroin, it comes down to the same thing: an epidemic that is killing thousands of Americans every year. In 2017, the National Institute on Drug Abuse said that there were 64,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2016. Of those, about 44,000 were attributed to different categories of opioids.

But what does that mean to you? If you haven’t been impacted to the addiction, are the statistics just random numbers without meaning?

Pennsylvania has created a way for you to take a specific look at the impact of opioids on a county-by-county basis with the online Opioid Data Dashboard.

“This information is vital as we all work together to help our loved ones, our neighbors and our communities who continue to be devastated by this crisis,” Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement.

According to the data, there are 644 Centre County residents who receive Medicaid and have an “opioid use disorder,” or OUD. Another 372 covered by Medicaid expansion have an OUD. There are 394 people receiving medication-assisted treatment.

Surrounding counties add to the problem. In Clearfield, there are 1,614 Medicaid or Medicaid expansion recipients with an OUD, while Cambria has 3,379 and Blair 3,762. Between the three counties, there are 119 babies receiving Medicaid who were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, meaning they are facing fallout from opiate exposure before birth.

“This information allows us to look at the areas where the opioid crisis is doing the most damage,” Acting Health Secretary and Physician General Dr. Rachel Levine said. “Through this data, we can see where prevention is needed, where rescue can be improved and where treatment is necessary to help those communities that have been affected the most by the opioid epidemic.”

Wolf declared the crisis a “disaster emergency” in January.

This story was originally published March 18, 2018 at 6:25 PM with the headline "How bad is the opioid crisis in your backyard?."