Fewer Butler County residents died from overdoses in 2018 than in 2017, but local leaders still see a long battle ahead.

In 2018, 46 people in Butler County died of an overdose, according to the county coroner's office. That figure is exactly half of 2017's 92 deaths, and still fewer than 2016's 74 deaths.

Talk to any of the people in Butler County working to curb addiction about that statistic and they'll tell you all the work that is yet to be done.

Leslie Osche, county commissioners' chairwoman, said “obviously it's certainly a number to celebrate,” but she described herself as only “cautiously optimistic.”

She said she's heard from some people in law enforcement that many addicts have simply moved on to other substances to avoid heroin laced with fentanyl. She also thinks the decrease mirrors decreases in other areas throughout the nation.

“This was not an overnight fix,” she said. “There is no overnight fix.”

But still, she said, many in Butler are working hard to make headway. She pointed to the faith community, to school groups and to Narcan providers, to name a few helping to decrease overdose deaths.

Successful efforts center around drug use prevention, recovery and support for people in recovery, she said.

“It's a positive message to see that the community has come together for this,” Osche said. “People are really stepping up to address this issue in big ways. You can't point to just one thing. There are too many things happening.”

State and national trends for 2018 deaths are not fully available yet, but so far estimates appear to show a decrease. In the 12-month period ending in June of 2017 compared to the 12 months preceding June of 2018 (the most recent figures available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), Pennsylvania experienced a 12.5 percent decrease in overdose deaths. The same time frame nationwide saw a 1 percent decrease in overdose deaths.

A CDC line chart of Pennsylvania figures shows a peak in deaths during August and September of 2017. It drops from there, showing decreases through June 2018.

Linda Franiewski, executive director of the Ellen O'Brien Gaiser Center, said she hopes those who are helping people fight addiction in Butler County don't see the 2018 figure and think their job is done.

“I get so nervous that people will get this false sense of success,” Franiewski said. “And that scares me for the people who are still struggling.”

Franiewski said it's “wonderful” that the death toll dropped, but she's still horrified to have lost another 46 people.

“It's unacceptable levels of death,” she said.

Losing 46 people is still “hemorrhaging,” she said.

Franiewski attributes much of the drop to the widespread availability of Narcan. Efforts to get the drug everywhere are “commendable,” she said. The drug, she said, is giving people a second chance to get sober.

The stigma around addiction remains a major obstacle, Franiewski said. She points to education efforts as a major push making real headway in Butler County, but she laments that addiction information is lost on some locals. Some people, she said, will never get it.

“They have complete disdain for people that are suffering because they say they brought it on themselves,” Franiewski said. “They think they deserve to die.”

She said she's heard of parents keeping quiet about their own children's deaths from overdoses.

“The stigma has destroyed people's families,” Franiewski said.

Tracy Hack, a Butler County Community College coordinator helping put on “Hope is Dope” events in Butler, agreed that addiction stigma still needs fixing in Butler County.

“We're trying to open the doors of opportunity so that people can recover and have a life again,” Hack said. “That's what our initiative is all about. Hopefully, as time progresses, the real hope is that people start giving them second chances.”

Jobs and social lives are what make people stick to recovery, Hack said.

Nicholas Neupauer, BC3 president, said he is glad that the college got involved in providing opportunities to learn about addiction and recovery.

“It's about doing the right thing in our role as the community's college,” Neupauer said. “I'm incredibly proud of that.”

The “Hope is Dope” program is named for a book by Steve Treu, an addiction counselor in Cranberry Township.

Treu said the heartbreaking truth is that many of those overdose deaths are likely from people who were trying to sober up. People often get clean for a period, have a relapse and end up overdosing because their tolerance levels had decreased during their sobriety, he said.

“The last two guys I knew personally who overdosed and died had six months to a year of clean time prior to that,” Treu said.

He attributes success to two factors: education and medication. Educating people can build support systems for recovering addicts, and medicines such as Narcan, methadone and Vivitrol can help give those addicts a fighting chance, he said.

“We're not satisfied with 46, that's for sure,” Treu said.

Bill Halle, a Butler school board member and CEO of the Grace Youth and Family Foundation, echoed others who said work is not yet done.

“How can you not be happy that there is less death?” Halle said. “But by any measure, I still think we're a far ways away from the solution.”

He said the figure doesn't really reflect what he's seeing in the community. He worries that this particular window of time and measurement of addiction isn't enough to declare the crisis to be waning.

“I'm still greatly concerned with what I see on the street,” Halle said. “People are not becoming clean and sober or independent of cyclical government programs.”

Even if fewer people are overdosing, he said, if drug usage continues it still negatively impacts the community.

But if the numbers for Butler County ring true in neighboring counties, Halle said there is something to celebrate.

“If that is a 50 percent reduction across our region, then I think that is awesome,” Halle said.