Rockland, Carver, Weymouth hit hard by drug crisis

Rockland, Weymouth and Carver were the South Shore towns hardest hit by the opioid epidemic in 2016, according to state public health data released last week.

Rockland saw the highest per capita rate of fatal overdoses, with about 12 deaths for every 10,000 residents. Weymouth, Carver and Plympton had a rate of about seven deaths per 10,000 residents, while Avon and Holbrook saw about six.

Hingham, Sharon, Whitman, East Bridgewater and Kingston had the lowest rates of overdose death, ranging between 0.4 (Hingham) and 0.75 (Kingston) deaths per 10,000 residents.

Stacey Gardner of Rockland CARES, a local anti-addiction advocacy group, said it's hard to pinpoint why, exactly, Rockland's rate is so much higher than those of other area towns, but the group's review of the death certificates of those who have died has revealed a startling trend: 60 percent of the 63 overdose deaths among town residents since 2011 took the lives of people who worked in the trades, like electricians, plumbers and construction workers.

"That number really stood out to us," said Gardner, whose own brother was a tradesman and died of an overdose last April.

The findings led the group to develop a new training program to increase awareness and provide information on addiction treatment resources for small business owners and companies who employ tradespeople, but might out-source services from the human resources departments that usually handle such issues due to their size. The training aims to educate owners about how to spot signs of addiction or substance abuse among their employees and find a way to help them before they drag down productivity or lose their life.

"We're putting tools in the hands of business owners in town and other surrounding towns," said Gardner. "If you're seeing someone struggling, and it sets your team back, it hurts the reputation of your business and costs you money. As a business owner, you're a human, too, and it's stressful to watch an employee struggle like that. This empowers them to access help for their employees."

Gardner said that even though deaths have been ticking up over the past few years, local police have been seeing fewer calls for unique individuals overdosing, which could indicate that fewer people are becoming addicted and requiring those services, and that more people who have become addicted are getting the treatment they need.

"It's not black-and-white, we can't pinpoint it, but we're hoping the work we're doing is helping individuals so that less people are getting involved or they're getting help," she said.

Statewide, the rate of opioid-related overdose deaths has begun decreasing, and 2017 saw the first drop in the overall number of deaths since 2010. Still, the toll was just below 2,000 deaths.

The South Shore and Brockton area have remained among the hardest hit areas in the state since January 2011, the data shows, with overdose death rates between 23 and 32 per 100,000 residents.