The National Safety Council reported this month that it is more likely for Americans to die of an opioid overdose than in a motor vehicle crash. The report, which also tracks the likelihood of dying from heart disease, cancer and other ailments, states the odds of dying by overdose is 1 in 96, while the odds of dying in a crash follows at 1 in 103.

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, which the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports as having a statistically high death toll from opioids, government and community members across the state remain dedicated to fighting the epidemic. The Greene County Overdose Task Force, established in February 2018, met Monday morning to discuss status on current programs as well as new options.

Members reported their progress on different programs, including school prevention initiatives and resource development for addicts in recovery.

“Trying to look at where the gaps are that we need to fill in for prevention services,” said Karen Bennett, director of the Greene County Department of Human Services. “There’s been a lot of activity trying to pull together what’s available in the county, as well as some things that are in progress.”

The task force is broken into three groups focused on law enforcement measures, treatment and prevention. Bennett said Monday’s meeting dedicated considerable time to improving access to halfway houses in the community. Recent legislation requires houses to reach a certain certification, she said, and the task force is working with local houses to meet that pedigree.

“That was kind of a gap: once people get discharged, getting them back into the community and getting them hooked up with sober and clean resources,” Bennett said.

Bennett said food insecurity is another issue that reverberates from the area’s drug problem.

“We talked a lot about food insecurity and how parents use their money on drugs and children are hungry. Kids are hungry,” she said.

Bennett said the recent government shutdown has exacerbated the food insecurity aspect, as families relient on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have not collected food stamps since January. She said this isn’t uncommon: drug issues spiraling to affect other social problems in the region.

“Some of these other community social issues are secondary or sometimes primary issues around the drug issue,” Bennett said.

To remedy drug-related and other problems, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro mandated the app in 2018, requiring all public schools to incorporate a new mobile application, Safe2Say, encouraging kids to report incidents of neglect, bullying and drug use in their lives. The official goal of the app is to prevent incidents of school violence, but Bennett said many of the reports coming through the system have related to drug use in children’s homes.

But as far as the death toll goes, Greene County has seen significant improvement in recent years, which may or may not be linked to the task force’s efforts, Bennett said. According to data from the county coroner, the number of overdose deaths in the county has steadily decreased since 2016: dropping from 20 deaths, to 14 in 2017, to just four in 2018.

Bennett said assessments and treatment facilities run by the Department of Human Services has documented more drug use relating to methamphetamine, cocaine and suboxone. She thinks the decrease in heroin and fentanyl cases could be contributing to the decrease in deaths.

The work is never complete, though. Among dozens of other programs, Bennett’s next big project will be an opioid stigma listening session, aimed at exploring the stereotypes and reproach associated with opioids.