Opioid epidemic: WilCo hosts awareness meeting as cases increase locally

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas - Williamson County EMS said opioids are a problem here in Central Texas, and tackling that starts in the classroom.

Even though the class size was small on Wednesday, its lessons were mighty.

"This is just another thing in their tool box," said Stacee Henrichs, the assistant outreach and education coordinator for Williamson County EMS. "Kind of like CPR. We teach CPR, we teach Stop the Bleed. This is just another tool out there that somebody can learn, and they can help somebody in need."

Stacee Henrichs taught a class on opioids.

"The opioid crisis that’s going on is becoming so prevalent," said Henrichs. "People don’t realize it can be in our own area, and we’re seeing an increase in opioid overdoses in our area, and so we wanted to just get the awareness out there."

Just last week, the Williamson County Sheriff's Office reported four fentanyl overdoses, including one death.

Henrichs said overdoses are becoming so common, it's becoming the number one cause of death in people ages 35-45, surpassing vehicle crashes.

"It's pretty serious," said Henrichs. "We’re seeing it more often than people realize."

Lee Cooper, who attended for the Cedar Park American Legion, said he's seeing the issue with veterans.

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"Drug overdoses is certainly one of the big issues," said Cooper. "It’s tough to do that. We just kind of feel it was important to learn as much as we can about the effects and how to overcome this stuff, so we can be, again, a better service to the veteran community."

Students like Cooper also walked away with Narcan, and even practiced using it.

"We are surprised at the amount of people who signed up for the first class, so I'm assuming that with the knowledge out there and the increase, we’re going to see alot more people in these classes," said Henrichs.

The county wants to host these classes monthly.

They’ll be providing dates and time on their website.