Chelan Douglas Health Officer Reports Opioid Overdose Deaths Have Nearly Doubled Since Last Year

Ten people have died this month alone – but the good news is 180 lives have been saved by Naloxone over the past few years, according to a CDHD board member

A medical provider holding up a dose of Naloxone nasal spray, which can arrest the progress of an opioid overdose so a patient can get life-saving medical attention.

Opioid overdose deaths in Chelan County have nearly doubled since last year, with 10 people perishing this month alone – according to data presented by Chelan Douglas Health District Health Officer Dr. James Wallace and CDHD Board Member Joseph Hunter on Dec. 16.

“For the past five years we’ve seen a huge rise in opioid and psycho-stimulant overdoses,” Wallace said. “So that’s primarily driven by fentanyl or synthetic opioids. And more and more overdoses are a combination of overdoses.”

The problem is nation and statewide, but our region is seeing more of an impact than other parts of Washington.

“North Central Washington is particularly hard hit with opioid overdoses, Okanogan County having the highest rate of overdose deaths,” Wallace said. “Chelan County being a bit farther behind and then Kittitas and Grant County having fewer – but all seeing levels that compels us to respond.”

The numbers Wallace presented came from the Washington State Department of Health’s Opioid and Drug Use Data Dashboard, which has data from 2022 – the most recent year that data is available.

That year, 28 people died from opioid overdoses.

Hunter, who works for Thriving Together NCW and specializes in recovery outreach, had more recent numbers for Chelan County. There were 19 deaths in 2023 and 32 in 2024, so far.

Ten people died of overdoses just this month, he said.

However there are a few silver linings.

“One good thing that we’re seeing is a down trend in the dangerous prescribing of opioid medications,” Wallace said.

The over-prescribing of opioids by medical providers was one of driving forces that kick started the national opioid epidemic back in 2010-11.

Another positive is that there has been an increase in treatment opportunities for those battling addiction in the region. However we don’t have methadone clinics or prescribers, Wallace said, so that option is off the table.

“It is sometimes a more effective way of treating opioid abuse disorder,” he said. “It’s just not available in our region because of the complications and requirements to deliver that service.”

The data also shows that visits to the emergency room due to opioid overdoses has decreased, and the number of saves by Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers like ambulance crews has gone up.

These crews and other EMS are using Naloxone to treat and reverse opioid overdoses on scene. Transport to the hospital is then often declined by the patient, he said.

“Over the past year we’ve seen a lot more Naloxone saves,” Wallace said.

Hunter said over the past three years, more than 180 overdoses have been reversed in the region because of Naloxone. He said he would love to give a presentation about that data he and CDHD staffer Garth Donald have compiled on that.

When it comes to what they need to do a better job on, Wallace said the first thing is getting access to more recent data. They are working off of numbers that are two-to-three years old now and they need more recent numbers if they want to be more effective in their responses.

He also suggested a “mapping project” to gain a comprehensive understanding of what services are available currently so they can fill in the gaps. The health district should also strive to continue expanding access to treatment options and expanding recovery support services.

A “key priority” is expanding access to Naloxone.

“More and more people are asking if Naloxone can be left behind after an overdose so other people can be treated,” he said.

It’s something EMS personnel have been doing in other parts of the state and it’s something our EMS system has expressed interested in, he said. So he hopes they will get the support of the health district to do that.

After Wallace’s presentation board member and Covid-19 conspiracy theorist Bill Sullivan signaled that he would like to ask the first question. He used the opportunity to criticize the health district and his fellow board members before getting to his query.

“This is what I think you call a public health crisis,” Sullivan said. “For two years I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out what it is that is the health department’s goal in the opioid epidemic.”

Sullivan said he wasn’t trying to criticize Wallace or his presentation, but he took issue with what to him are “really broad terms” like “map people to resources” and “collect data.” He doesn’t even know what department within the health district deals with opioids, and what their focus is.

“Are we focused on treatment? Are we focused on prevention?” he asked. “Are we coordinating with other agencies? Law enforcement? School Districts? For prevention? Social health services for mental health, right? Are we doing those things?”

He said he’s going to come back next month with a written proposal to ask the chair to form a committee to outline what more the district could do. The last time he brought a proposal it didn’t even get a second in his motion to discuss it, he said, but that’s ok.

“This board does not like being caught off guard,” he said.

Then he came to the heart of the matter – data collection and who gets to see what numbers. Why can’t they see the “death data?” he asked, meaning the details of how many people died in any given county in any given year and the cause of those deaths.

Wallace started at the beginning and answered Sullivan point-by-point. First, providing direct treatment is beyond the scope of their department. They do have close working relationships with partners they can and should strengthen, and the reason they don’t have access to the data Sullivan is focused on is because of privacy.

“A big reason we don’t have access to that DOH-level death data is for privacy reasons,” Wallace said. “And it can’t be made public, but we’re working on ways to gain access to that data in a way that we can actually analyze it and use it to form our response.”

That answer was not acceptable to Sullivan, who again signaled he’d like to speak immediately after Wallace finished.

“That’s a ruse,” he said. “We’ve talked about this before. That’s a ruse that they used to close-hole that information at the state level. I’ve given my theory why – it’s because hiding, frankly it’s hiding the Covid vaccine damage but it’s all done under the auspices of privacy.”

No one responded and CDHD Board Chair and East Wenatchee Mayor Jerrilea Crawford gave Hunter the floor. He said he’d like to see the district focus on drug prevention, and declare this as a public health emergency.

CDHD board member Dr. Bindu Nayak was the last to speak, and she said she’d like to see Hunter and Donald’s presentation at next month’s meeting if possible.

You can watch most of Wallace’s presentation and the Q&A session at the end here:

If you would like to learn more about Naloxone, find where you can get some and learn how to use it, visit stopoverdose.org and access the Naloxone finder for Washington state here.

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Continuing to Hold Sullivan and the Board Accountable

Back in August, Sullivan got into an altercation with a self-described “First Amendment auditor” and YouTuber named Heath Poitra.

I was the first to cover it, and you can read that here:

I asked Sullivan for comment on that before publishing that article, but he refused to answer questions. So I reached out to CDHD board and asked if the health district has a comment. Board Chair Crawford said they were advised by legal council not to make a statement, since no police report had been filed at the time.

Not satisfied with that answer, I decided to take my questions to the September board meeting. You can watch and hear those comments (and the discussion they prompted) here:

That same week, Poitra walked into the Wenatchee Police Station and filed a report, alleging that Sullivan had assaulted him and broken some of his equipment

I spoke to Wenatchee Police Chief Edgar Reinfeld about that after the report was filed and learned that an officer had been assigned to investigate the incident. So I waited a few weeks and checked back in. Reinfeld said Sullivan did not respond to the officer’s attempts to contact him for an interview, but that based on her investigation it looked like Sullivan could be charged with malicious mischief if they forwarded a recommendation to the prosecutor.

So I reached out to Sullivan and the board again.

On Nov. 20 I sent the following email to Sullivan and the rest of the board:

“Hello,

Wenatchee Police Chief Edgar Reinfeld said they have investigated the altercation between Bill Sullivan and Heath Poitra after Poitra filed a police report, and it looks like there are grounds to forward a recommendation of a malicious mischief charge against Sullivan to the prosecutor. Malicious mischief is a criminal offense.

Now that the case has been reported, investigated and charges may be filed does the CDHD board have any comment on the matter? I recall that the rationale behind not commenting was that no report had been filed. That threshold has been met and exceeded at this point.

Thank you for your time,”

I received no reply.

So I decided to make another public comment at the December board meeting, and you can listen to that here:

Discussion of what the committee came up with when it comes to a code of conduct is on the January 2025 meeting agenda, so I will keep an eye on what transpires on that front.

If Sullivan is held to any standard, or none at all, I’ll cover it. I’ll also cover the opioid epidemic in greater detail in 2025.

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