What does this measure?

The number of people from a geographic area (county, city or town) admitted to alcohol/substance abuse treatment centers anywhere in the state, expressed as a rate per 10,000 residents.

Why is this important?

Drinking and drug use increases an individual's risk of poor health outcomes, including motor vehicle crashes and unintentional injuries, and is often a contributing factor in child abuse, domestic violence, suicide and homicide. The availability of treatment can be a critical factor in helping people recover from addiction.

How is our county doing?

Essex had 87 admissions to treatment per 10,000 residents in 2021, down 46% from 2018 and below the state rate of 126. The decline began in 2019 and accelerated in 2020 when the COVID pandemic began. In both Essex and the state, heroin and opioids were the most common primary drug, making up nearly half of all admissions. Alcohol was the next most common primary drug, making up about 33%. Heroin admissions were the fastest growing category, with admissions peaking in 2016, but they have declined 55% to a rate of 35 per 10,000 in 2021.

Marijuana and crack/cocaine admissions were among the lowest rates both state and county-wide, averaging only around 8% of admissions when combined.

How do we compare to similar counties?

Middlesex, MA had 59 admissions per 10,000 residents, about 32% less than Essex's rate and a decline since 2008. Essex's admission rate for heroin, 35, was higher than in Middlesex (24). Comparable data was not available for Lake, IL and Westchester, NY.

Notes about the data

The state did not disclose admissions data for cities/towns and for some substance categories with low numbers, for confidentiality reasons. CGR aggregated local data in prior years to produce totals for counties, but the suppression of some small localities or substance categories means that county-level admissions by substance do not sum exactly to total county admissions. National data were not available.