Local center confronts opioid crisis with education, support

AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - The opioid crisis impacts everyone from across the nation to the CSRA.

The South Carolina Department of Health has data going back to 2022 showing a rise in opioid overdose deaths at the state level.

Through funding, Aiken has set up a plan for the next 18 years to try and combat this rising number.

“This isn’t a law enforcement issue, this isn’t a mental health issue, this is all of our issue,” says Margaret Key, Aiken Center’s executive director.

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The Aiken Center is doing what it can to stop people from making a choice that could not only impact their life but take it.

“With the COVID pandemic, the opioid use became the pandemic within the pandemic. So, you saw these numbers of drug overdose deaths just climbed during those COVID years and continue to climb,” says Key.

The Aiken Center partnered with multiple other organizations hoping to make a difference.

“In Aiken County in 2023, we lost 100 people to accidental overdose deaths just in Aiken County, and so, you know, two a week,” Key says.

In 2024 that number was nearly cut in half.

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“We’re doing a little better job maybe or we’re tackling it more successfully and I give lots of credit to first responders who are out there with Narcan,” says Key. “We still have lots of overdoses it’s just they’re living. People are less likely to die now, and we have people who are more aware of what Narcan is.”

The center is doing what it can to break any barriers people need to get help and educate the public.

“Through this money, we have peer support specialists, recovery coaches embedded in the jail and in the detention center,” Key says.

They are encouraging people to get help with the end goal of ending the opioid crisis.

“We stand ready to welcome Monday through Thursday, walk with people who say I want help,” says Key. “We had 15 people walk in last month. No one was telling them they had to be there. They just said ‘I heard about you I’d like to meet with the counselor. I’d like to get some help.’”

The center’s next step is going to the schools and working to teach kids about the dangers of drugs through a program called Lead, preventing them from making a life-impacting choice.