New Jersey 101.5 (January 5, 2021) covering drug related death’s due to stress and forced isolation from the Pandemic.
When the Pandemic started, New Jersey officials were worried about whether the stress and forced isolation would cause an uptick in substance abuse that would subsequently lead to more deaths in those suffering from the disorder. However, data does show that an increase has not happened. In New Jersey the number of drug overdoses between March and September 2020 were fewer than the same time frame of the previous year, 2019.
Related deaths, however, are not the only measure of the state’s opioid and heroin epidemic. Experts and representatives are still trying to get a better handle on the true impact of the pandemic, which is said to have exacerbated problems related to addiction and recovery.
“Isolation can be a huge risk factor to continued, progressive substance use, or relapse,” said Matthew Grey, program manager of the Family Support Center at Care Plus NJ.
“What we’ve seen is that, because of fears related to COVID, a lot of people were more reluctant to go to a hospital if they needed to, to seek treatment of some kind or detoxification,” Grey added.
