Substance Use

What is substance use?

The term "substance use" refers to the misuse of alcohol, tobacco products, prescription and illegal drugs, inhalant and solvents and other substances that lead to impaired health issues and/or that cause harm to the user or others.

Alcohol

Why are we concerned about alcohol?

Alcohol continues to be one of the primary substances of concern in Winnebago County and the state. This is not surprising given the Wisconsin alcohol culture, which puts alcohol front and center at social, recreational or sport events.

In Wisconsin 24% of the population (age 18 and older) report binge drinking about once a week. The annual cost to Wisconsin resident is $4 Billion. The prevalence of alcohol, the rates of drinking among adults and teens and the consequences of overindulging comes at a cost (WPR 2019).

Both youth and adults in Winnebago County drink in excess of what is considered healthy or safe. For youth, while the numbers are gradually improving, there is still much work left to be done (WPR 2019).

Social Connectedness

Lack of social support is a major factor that is impacting the mental wellbeing and substance use of youth and adults in Winnebago County. To learn more about the link between social support and substance use, please visit It Takes a Community & Connectedness is Key report.

Think your drinking doesn't affect anyone else? Think again.

One in five adults in the US -- about 53 million people -- said they've experienced harm from someone else's drinking in the past year, according to a new study out today from the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. The harm ranged from property damage to physical injury. About 21% of women and 23% of men reported experiencing alcohol-related harms, with the most prevalent type being harassment. The study had some limitations, mainly being that the data was self-reported.

In Winnebago County . . .

On a yearly average there are:

66 alcohol related deaths

1675 alcohol related hospitalizations

156 alcohol related crashes

Winnebago vs. Wisconsin

According 2012-2016 County Health Rankings data, the proportion of driving deaths involving alcohol for Winnebago County was 38% compared to 36% for Wisconsin during that same time period.

Learn more about Winnebago County

Binge Drinking

Binge drinking is defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), as a pattern of drinking that brings a person's blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. This typically happens when men consume 5 or more drinks or women consume 4 or more drinks in about 2 hours. Binge drinking is associated with many health problems serious risks.

According to the 2019 Burden of Binge Drinking in Wisconsin, the estimated annual economic cost of binge drinking in Winnebago County is $108.9 million.

For adults, Winnebago County has similar rates of binge drinking compared to the Tri-County area; however since 2015 rates have increased in Winnebago County. In 2015, 18% of adults reported binge drinking in the past 30 days compared to 28% of adults in 2018 (WC CHS 2018).

*Binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks per occasion for females and five or more drinks per occasion for males.

Opiates

Why are we concerned about opiates?

There are risks and serious outcomes associated with opioid use. Cancer, injuries, motor vehicle and other accidents, are some of the consequences of opioid misuse. Neonatal abstinence syndrome or NAS, is a group of problems that occur in a newborn who was exposed to addictive opiates while in the mother's womb.

The most tragic consequence of opiate misuse is death.

Opioid Mortality Rates

There are many health risks associated with substance use; and these risks are the result of short-term or long-term substance use.

The most mentioned and most dramatic health outcome is death. Substance use-related deaths can occur for many reasons, including cancer or motor vehicle accidents. However, what we think about most often is deaths from overdose. The number of overdose deaths in Winnebago County has drastically increased over the years, from only 3 deaths in 2001 to 34 deaths in 2017. Substances attributed to these deaths include opiates, alcohol, antidepressants, other prescription drugs, and other illicit substances. Opiates have contributed heavily to the increased number of deaths. In 2017, opiates were identified in 65% of the overdose deaths that occurred in Winnebago County.

As a response to the increasing overdose deaths in our county, Winnebago County developed an Overdose Fatality Review Team in 2017. This team reviews the lives and deaths of people that have died from an overdose, and uses the information gathered, to develop and implement recommendations to prevent overdose deaths.

Listen to real stories from our community

Gender Disparities

More men than women, per 100,0000 people in Winnebago County die by opioid overdose compared to the state rates (WISH 2017).

Age Disparities

Winnebago County has a higher death rate by opioid among 15 to 44 year olds than the state (WISH 2017).

Substance Harm Reduction Strategies

What are harm reduction strategies?

Harm reduction strategies lessen the consequences associated with substance use. One harm reduction strategy is needle exchange programs, which seek to reduce spread of communicable diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C through providing new needles and disposing of used needles. The Winnebago County Health Department is a needle exchange program satellite site for the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin's (ARCW), now named Vivent Health. Vivent Health also trains people in the use of Narcan (naloxone), a drug used to reverse overdoses, and distributes free Narcan to those who receive training. All of these strategies are critical for keeping those who use substances alive and healthy, reducing stigma around substance use, and providing tangible support for those impacted by substance use in our community.

Another harm reduction strategy involves limiting the access to medication. Drug drop boxes allows Winnebago County residents to dispose unwanted medication at any of the four permanent drug drop sites located at local Police Departments: Fox Crossing, Menasha, Neenah, and Oshkosh.

Disposing of expired or unwanted medications helps reduce drug-related crimes, prevents prescription drug misuse, and accidental poisoning especially in children and pets. Please read the new disposal guidelines for current rules before preparing a deposit.

What is Narcan?

Narcan is a life-saving drug used to reverse opioid overdoses. Vivent Health and the Winnebago County Health Department distribute free Narcan to those who receive training.

Substance Treatment & Recovery Resources

Winnebago County

Compared to other communities, Winnebago County is rich in treatment and recovery resources. Treatment and recovery services readily available when needed are the free or peer-to-peer type resources.

Even with our relatively high density of resources, many resources are still difficult to access and wait times are reported. The service hardest to access when needed is clinical. To increase treatment success, working people need to be ready and open to receive treatment. This window of opportunity may be very short, so it is important for people to have access to affordable treatment at the time they are asking for it.

The hurdles to accessing treatment and support are significant:

People may have issues finding services or have difficulty with insurance and the affordability of treatment.
Community members report insurance often requires individuals 'fail' at a first treatment option before moving to a more advanced treatment option.
People may also experience barriers, such as access to child care, lack of family support, housing, and employer support.
Though we know, and are seeing, in our community that mental health issues are often associated with substance use disorders, there is a general lack of services allowing for both to be treated simultaneously.
Youth often have a more difficult time accessing services, because these more specialized services are less available in our community and may require travel to Milwaukee.

Our Efforts

Despite these challenges, good work is taking hold in our community. Efforts, resources, and support are increasing around building peer support, sober living options, medically-assisted therapy, and dual diagnosis treatment. For example, in partnership with the Winnebago County Drug and Alcohol Coalition, the Oshkosh Police Department developed a Law Enforcement Addiction Assistance Program (L.E.A.A.P.) as a warm-hand off process to support individuals asking for help with substance use to access treatment services.

Learn More

To learn more about what local health departments are doing in response to the opioid use, visit the Local Health Department Approaches to Opioid Use Prevention and Response: An Environmental Scan 2019 Report.

Youth & Substance Use

Youth & Alcohol

Alcohol continues to be one of the primary substances of concern in Winnebago County, which is not surprising given the Wisconsin alcohol culture. Both youth and adults drink in excess of what is considered healthy or safe. For youth, while the numbers are gradually improving, there still is much work left to be done.

Progress has been made on the percentage of high school students who identified drinking in the past month. However, almost one in four students reports drinking in the past month. The younger a person starts drinking, the more likely they are to become problem drinkers later in life.

Tobacco, Marijuana & Alcohol

Where we invest resources we see benefit in the outcomes. In the past 10 years, the Drug Free Communities Grant has focused on reducing youth tobacco and alcohol use. Early initiation of use is decreasing for alcohol and tobacco, specifically cigarettes. There is still a lot of work to do, such as addressing the rise in vaping. It gives us hope that we can make similar impact on other substances if we invest our time, money, and energy.

Health Factors

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