Republican Governor Bruce Rauner signed an executive order Wednesday to create an opioid overdose prevention and intervention task force in Illinois.
Nirav Shah, MD, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, and Republican Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti will co-chair the task force. The team will promote the treatment and recovery of individuals with opioid use disorders, expand access to naloxone and increase the number of providers using the state's prescription monitoring program, among other efforts.
"The opioid crisis in Illinois affects people from all walks of life — small towns and big cities, the wealthy and the poor, young and old. Without treatment, people suffering from opioid-use disorder risk dropping out of school, losing their job, becoming homeless, losing custody of their children, or getting arrested," Gov. Rauner said. "This is not a problem that government, healthcare, police, schools, communities or others can solve on their own. We must all work together."
Between 2013 and 2016, opioid-related overdose deaths increased 76 percent in Illinois, and overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids surged 258 percent. More than 1,900 people in the state are projected to die from an opioid overdose this year.
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