David Cohen, director of Quannacut Outpatient Services, pictured in 2019. (Credit: Joe Werkmeister/file)
Over the past year, as the COVID-19 pandemic claimed lives and sent thousands to hospitals and into ICUs, another epidemic was also raging.
Opioids.
While experts say the opioid addiction crisis has changed in recent years, it has never abated. And during the year of COVID-19, it lay ominously in the background as North Fork residents like all Americans remained focused on the pandemic.
And during this year, it got a lot worse.
“We definitely saw an increase in numbers of people seeking help,” said Dr. Jared Pachter, medical director of Quannacut Outpatient Services, which is affiliated with Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport. “It went way up, no question. What made it worse is that many facilities were not open because of COVID, so people needing treatment had nowhere to go.”
David Cohen, director of Quannacut Outpatient Services, pictured in 2019. (Credit: Joe Werkmeister/file)
Over the past year, as the COVID-19 pandemic claimed lives and sent thousands to hospitals and into ICUs, another epidemic was also raging.
Opioids.
While experts say the opioid addiction crisis has changed in recent years, it has never abated. And during the year of COVID-19, it lay ominously in the background as North Fork residents like all Americans remained focused on the pandemic.
And during this year, it got a lot worse.
“We definitely saw an increase in numbers of people seeking help,” said Dr. Jared Pachter, medical director of Quannacut Outpatient Services, which is affiliated with Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport. “It went way up, no question. What made it worse is that many facilities were not open because of COVID, so people needing treatment had nowhere to go.”