Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently released a report showing that new Hepatitis C cases in the U.S. grew by nearly 300 percent between 2010 and 2015. The root cause of this dramatic increase is the opioid epidemic – specifically, the use of needles to inject heroin and prescription painkillers. Unfortunately, Indiana is one of seven states with rates of Hepatitis C infection at least twice the national average. This week, the Indiana State Department of Health released a county-level report detailing the broad and devastating toll of the opioid crisis in Indiana. The picture in […]

Indiana ranks among the worst states nationally when it comes to opioid use disorder – with drug overdoses in 2014 claiming more than 1,100 lives and costing the state $1.4 billion. But this year, we also may be one of the best positioned places to tackle the opioid epidemic by addressing its root causes and changing the way our state helps people overcome addiction. Two recent developments – one at the state level and one in Indianapolis – signal the momentum for addressing the challenge: In January, Republican Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb created a cabinet-level position charged with addressing Indiana’s drug epidemic, underscoring the urgency of the problem. Democratic Mayor […]