Some heroin addicts progress from other drugs — illegal or prescription — into their addictions. Others are just born that way.
Those addicts, babies born addicted to opioids, are drawing special attention from the Heroin is Here task force organized by Reid Health.
So far during 2015, 33 babies addicted to opioids have been born at Reid Health, already topping the 31 born addicted last year, according to numbers presented Friday at Heroin is Here's monthly meeting. Those totals are more than double the 2013 (11) and 2012 (15) numbers and are devastating when compared to the 2011 (four) and 2010 (one) totals.
In addition, the 2015 number has risen dramatically in the past two months. The total was 13 through July.
"We don't know (why)," Lisa Suttle, Heroin is Here coordinator and director of Reid's psychiatric services, said about the increases. "For sure, we're more detailed in our testing and more diligent about checking the mothers and the babies. We have more awareness in what to look for, and people are using."
Heroin is Here will begin a marketing campaign to raise awareness of the problem. Billboards saying, "A baby's life shouldn't begin with detox" are going up. Radio public service announcements also will begin airing Monday, emphasizing the painful withdrawal addicted babies experience and that the babies are forced by their mothers into addiction.
The group also is convening a special committee to focus on addicted babies.
Suttle said the growing issue is not unique to Reid and this area. She said a Reid group visited Dayton, Ohio, and found both locations follow the same protocols.