Yavapai County is one of the first counties in Arizona to create an overdose review board. Every year, they analyze and compile overdose death data for an annual report.
Merilee Fowler is the executive director of MATForce, a coalition of community organizations in Yavapai County. Their mission is to prevent and reduce substance use.
Fowler says in 2024, there were 66 deaths, the same as last year. But what surprised her was the number of deaths due to methamphetamine intoxication.
"Because with the fentanyl epidemic, you know, the opioid epidemic that we've been experiencing, people just assume that it would be fentanyl," Fowler said.
This year, the town of Camp Verde had the highest number of overdose deaths per capita, with nine overdose deaths, compared to four last year.
"The marshal of Camp Verde's on our board of directors, and we're talking about what are strategies that we can do to address, you know, that higher than normal rate of overdose deaths in that one community," Fowler said.
Seniors also affected by substance use
"We have an older retired population. But when we look at our overdose death data, again, I'll go to 2024. The highest age category is 30 to 39, but close behind that is 50 to 59 and 60 to 69," Fowler said.
She says when they looked at the overdoses in the elderly population, they found predominantly methamphetamine intoxication and illicit fentanyl.
