the "social autopsy"

 

 

Last week I listened to a piece on NPR (http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/05/11/opioid-crisis-west-virginia) about the extraordinary number of deaths due to opioid overdose in West Virginia…the highest rate in the country. West Virginia Commissioner of Health, Dr. Rahul Gupta, presented the concept of the “social autopsy” whereby he examined the histories of all 887 persons who died of drug overdoses in the state in 2016. This was an effort to identify the factors that put people at risk. Theoretically, this information could help identify a population that could be targeted with preventative strategies and public health policies in order to reduce the death rate due to opioid addiction.

“Addiction will end your life.
Recovery will change your story.”
~www.identifyproject.org~

You may have heard the term “social autopsy” used in a different context. The term has been used to describe strategies for adult intervention with school children who are socially challenged and make significant social errors, for example children with autism. (https://www.autismclassroomresources.com/social-autopsy/)

It is also the title of a website that was launched in 2016 to identify and monitor cyberbullies and trolls on the internet (http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/04/how-social-autopsy-fell-for-gamergate-trutherism.html).

But this is different. Dr. Gupta’s social autopsies were actual postmortem investigations. They were designed to look beyond the medical aspects of opioid deaths, to examine more than just the blood levels, types of drugs, and the presence of contaminants that were responsible for the deaths. He looked at the victims and their demographics (age, gender, race, education, income, religion, and marital status). He explored the effect of proximity to and the availability of effective treatment facilities. He checked out the relationship of opioid deaths to health insurance and Medicaid, and the incidence of treatment refusals. He took into consideration the risk of injury in the workplace and the prescribing habits of physicians who treated patients with these injuries. He considered the influence of family structure, a history of previous incarceration, and evidence of other addictive tendencies (alcohol, gambling, sex). His goal was to create a profile of characteristics associated with death due to opioid addiction so as to establish strategies for effective public health planning and preventative interventions.

“You no longer have a secret.
You have a story.”
~unknown~

Dr. Gupta came up with 887 different stories, each one complete with a full cast of characters, detailed backstory, setting, and story arc. The problem is they all ended in the death of the main character. Had we known their stories earlier, perhaps some of these deaths could have been prevented.

Hopefully, the next chapter will end on a more positive note.

“At any given moment

you have the power to say:

this is not how the story is going to end.”

~Christine Mason Miller~

jan