Las Cruces, NM – On this edition of PUENTES, bridges to the community, host Emily Guerra meets with Sovereign Health of El Paso Clinician, Melissa Salmon, and Marketing Communication Coordinator, Cynthia Barrera, to talk to us about the growing drug epidemic in our country.
Since September 2017, President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency. There were an estimated 65,000 deaths due to overdose in 2016; half of these deaths were due to prescription opioids. Barrera says that in El Paso there has been an increase in heroin seizures by about 50 percent in the last four years. Salmon noted that since the 1990’s there has been an increase in prescription and non-prescription drug use leading to heroin addictions.
There are several Sovereign Health treatment facilities in the Southwest, with one in El Paso, TX. Barrera says they have experts available to treat addictions to opioids and other drugs; mental health; detox, dual diagnosis and suicide, both in English and Spanish. Information is available at www.sovhealth.com and www.sovtexas.com; offices are at 415 E. Yandell Dr., El Paso, TX 79902.