Overdose Deaths Swell Among SF’s Maya Residents, Highlighting Urgent Need for Culturally Competent Drug Health Services

April 10, 2024

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From January 2020 to last December, 2,955 people died of accidental overdose in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Chief Medical Examiner’s Office. Of those, 456 were categorized as Latinx. But it’s impossible to get mortality rates of subgroups in the Latinx population since health authorities at city, state and federal agencies lump all Latin Americans together.

That neglects to account for the diversity of languages that exists within its subgroups, which means vital information, like warnings over the dangers of fentanyl and where to get help for substance use disorders, may not be reaching them.

Categorizing all Latin Americans together leads to other problems as well, according to advocates like Dr. Seciah Aquino, executive director of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, whose organization was part of a years-long campaign to get state departments to collect and disaggregate more detailed data for Latinx and Indigenous communities.

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