Indianapolis, Indiana – A bill that aims to improve tracking of overdose deaths and suicides is on the way to passing in Indiana.
Senate Bill 84 orders the state health department to prepare an annual report, which would include information like the number of deaths per month in each county and the age, gender, and race of each victim.
According to Megan Short, who lost her 26-year-old son Billy Cissell last June to an overdose of heroin laced with fentanyl, the bill gives her hope regarding Indiana’s fight against the drug epidemic.
“It can happen to anybody,” Short said. “He was a father. He had a three-year-old and was a big part of our family.”
According to Chase Cotten of The Willow Center, which offers treatment and mental health counseling services in Brownsburg, he believes the report could provide useful information to recovery groups.
“For example, if we noticed that white males at the age of 45 to 50 were experiencing higher rates of suicidality or overdose deaths, we could focus our attention on marketing our services to those groups of people,” Cotten said.
State Sen. Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg), who introduced the bill, says each county health department releases different data on overdose deaths and suicides.
“I couldn’t get the information that I felt I should be able to get as a member of the health committee and a state Senator,” Leising said.
According to Leising, the goal is to ensure funding for mental health and addiction services is going where it’s needed.
“Maybe you want assistance for someone you dearly love … that you can actually help them find the location, easy location where they could get assistance,” she said. “And that’s what I think isn’t happening right now.”
The bill passed the House on a unanimous vote. Since an amendment was added, it needs to go back to the Senate before it heads to the governor’s desk for his signature.
