Forsyth County health educator sees uptick in 911 overdose calls among minors

Hannah Phillips was hired by Forsyth County last November using funds from the national opioid settlement. Since then, she’s spent her time familiarizing herself with the substance use landscape in the area. 

With the help of the county’s Mobile Integrated Health team, which often responds to medical-related 911 calls, and a mapping software, Phillips has been keeping track of overdose trends among children. 

Phillips said she’s noticed both an uptick in 911 calls from minors related to overdoses and a shift in the substances they’re using. She said substance use is particularly prevalent among 14 and 15 year-old girls but not exclusive to that demographic. 

"There's just a lot of reported, self-reported or bystander-reported alcohol use among youth under 18," Phillips said. "THC vapes, THC gummies, synthetic marijuana, over-the-counter medications and prescription medication misuse. "

According to Forsyth County’s substance use tracker, in 2023, emergency teams responded to 95 overdoses for people under 17. Over 40% of those calls were related to prescription or over-the-counter drug use. 

Phillips said now that she’s spent a few months working in the city, she is getting the ball rolling on establishing educational programs for youth groups of all kinds. She says she's looking to work with school health classes and boys and girls clubs among others. 

The programs would be based on Stanford University’s Safety First curriculum, which teaches kids abstinence, but also provides education on harm reduction resources in case they or any of their friends are using. 

"We discuss how early substance use affects your brain as you develop," Phillips said. "And some healthy coping mechanisms you, know, why people choose to experiment with drugs at a young age and what are some choices we can make that deter that later on and at the present."

More information about substance use resources can be found on Forsyth County’s Health and Human Services website. Phillips can be reached by calling 743-217-5357 or messaging phillihg@forsyth.cc. 

Santiago Ochoa covers healthcare for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. Follow him on X and Instagram: @santi8a98