ST. LOUIS — St. Lazare House has a new addition: a rock garden remembering the people they've lost, two of whom died from suspected overdoses.
"This is horrible," Rich Laplume said. "You get emotionally tied to people you work with. There's no way of avoiding that. Especially how intense we work with people."
Those deaths are part of a growing problem that only worsened during the pandemic. The CDC reported Wednesday that 100,000 Americans died from overdoses in the 12 months between April 2020 and April 2021.
It's the first time the overdose deaths have topped 100k, though the numbers have been inching higher for years.
Run by DePaul USA, Laplume said they never stopped working during the pandemic. Dedicated to ending homelessness, they would check in on their roughly 100 clients during the height of shutdowns. Laplume estimated about 75% of them have a history of drug or alcohol addiction.
"We went to people's houses weekly to check on them because when you have an addiction or a mental health issue, you tend to isolate yourself to start with," he said.
Addiction hits people across all walks of life, and staff at Assisted Recovery Centers of America(ARCA) think the CDC statistics don't reflect reality.
"We would expect that the number is probably higher," ARCA President Paul Menzies said. "Not all deaths get an autopsy with the medical examiner doing toxicology [report]. That’s expensive. So we know that 100,000 is almost certainly on the low side."
Menzies said he believes — like the CDC officials — that a lot of deaths are fueled by an increasing prevalence of fentanyl.
"We cannot find a single sample that is not laced with fentanyl. Heroin, cocaine, meth, everything is laced with fentanyl," Menzies said.
Menzies said they'll continue their outreach, recently opening a clinic at Jubilee Community Church on North Grand and growing their telemedicine practice.
He, like Laplume, thinks there is a lot of work ahead.
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