Last month, the Knoxville News Sentinel and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee sponsored an opioid epidemic forum to address the growing opioid problem in Tennessee. The event offered the community opportunities to ask questions and get involved. According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, health care professionals in Tennessee wrote more than 7.8 million opioid prescriptions in […]
Count It! Lock It! Drop It!™ Community Engagement
The main focus of our mission is to engage and educate the community to specifically raise awareness of opioid abuse and medicine safety. CLD in the community: Our team set up a table at the Chattanooga State Health Fair to educate community members about the dangers of opioid abuse in Tennessee. CLD was at the […]
Spring Cleaning To Prevent Opioid Misuse
As we approach warmer weather, it’s time to put away our winter sweaters and clean out our closets. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and Count It! Lock It! Drop It!™ ask that you also add your medicine cabinet to your spring cleaning list. According to the Tennessee Department of Health, 1,451 Tennesseans died from drug overdoses […]
Tennessee Legislature: Now Is the Time To End Opioid Abuse
The Tennessee General Assembly has formed a joint task force on opioid and prescription drug abuse. House Speaker Beth Harwell, who is leading up the task force, has set her sights on determining best practices to dismantle Tennessee’s opioid and prescription abuse problems. According to the Tennessee Department of Health, data show that 1,451 people […]
Don’t become an accidental drug dealer
Dec. 17, 2016 Christina Merino Christina Merino: Make sure to count, lock and drop pain killers and keep them from being abused by others. I’ve heard a lot of addiction stories over the years, and most start out with “I had no idea she was taking pills” or “I wish I’d counted my pills and […]
Tennessee needs millions more for opioid treatment, commissioner says
Although Tennessee has made progress on a number of levels in terms of fighting the ongoing opioid epidemic that is sweeping the nation, to really make an impact the state needs to invest in additional treatment, the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services said Monday. “In this last year, […]
Opioid use overtakes tobacco
More adults in the U.S. use prescription painkillers than use tobacco, the latest milestone that highlights an opioid abuse epidemic sweeping the nation and particularly Tennessee, where there are more opioid prescriptions than people living in the state. A survey released in September by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that 37.8 […]
1,451 Tennesseans die of drug overdoses in 2015
Last year, 1,451 people died of drug overdoses in Tennessee — the highest annual number of overdose deaths in state history. The new data, released Tuesday from the Tennessee Department of Health, brings the five-year total of overdose deaths, statewide, to 6,036 — the same, the state said, as if every person on 40 mid-size […]
BCBS, UT to provide opioid antidote, training to law enforcement
How many of the 1,263 Tennesseans who died of opioid overdoses in 2014 could have been saved with an opioid antidote? There’s no way to know, said Don Green, executive director of the University of Tennessee Law Enforcement Innovation Center, but he hopes some training the center is providing starting this month can dramatically decrease […]
Toll on Tennesseans Challenges BlueCross to Tackle State’s Opioid Crisis
Last fall, Beth Anderson had hope that her daughter, Olivia Sucher, could break the grip of addiction. Olivia had the love and support of family and friends on her side. April 2, 2016 changed all that. With a phone call early that morning, the BlueCross employee learned that an overdose had claimed the life of […]
