The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention have recently declared national epidemics for both prescription opioid and heroin overdoses - noting that prescription opioids have become a pathway to street heroin use over the past decade. These declarations are especially concerning for Butte County as our age-adjusted drug induced death rate is roughly 3 times as high as the state of California overall, ranking 54th out of 58 counties.

The CDC has developed evidenced based guidelines for prescribing opioids for chronic pain. These include instruction for when to initiate or continue opioids for chronic pain; opioid selection, dosage, follow up and discontinuation; and assessing risk and addressing harm of opioid use.

Enloe Medical Center, Aegis Treatment Center, Oroville Hospital, Orchard Hospital, Butte County Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force, Feather River Hospital, Butte County Public Health Department & Butte-Glenn Medical Society

• Thirteen safe-prescribing trainings were administered in 2015-16 for Butte County prescribing providers by Enloe Medical Center, Aegis Treatment Center, and the Butte-Glenn Medical Society.
• All four area hospitals have safe-prescribing policies in place that are currently being reviewed and compared to best practices.
• The Butte County Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force received a grant for $52,500 to implement objectives outlined in the CHIP and to develop additional objectives to promote safe-prescribing in Butte County. Specific goals include: increasing safe-prescribing standards throughout the county, providing educational activities for Butte County clinicians, and implementing public education and outreach activities.

• Safe prescribing guidelines, established by the CDC, are being developed for use at local ambulatory care physician groups.
  
• The Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force is developing a safe-prescribing curriculum with plans to conduct 30 academic detailing visits with physicians, dentists, and pharmacists within the next 2 years.