Mental health, COVID-19 and fentanyl crisis to blame for Colorado life expectancy decrease

Mental health, COVID-19 and fentanyl crisis to blame for Colorado life expectancy decrease The average life expectancy in Colorado has dropped nearly three years since 2019, and experts are citing mental health, COVID-19 and the fentanyl crisis as major factors. Logan MacDonald KKTV

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - The average life expectancy in Colorado has dropped nearly three years since 2019 and experts are citing mental health, COVID-19 and the fentanyl crisis as major factors. Between fentanyl, COVID-19, mental health and other substance abuse, a combination of factors has caused the average Colorado life expectancy to drop from 81-years-old to 78 since 2019.

“When you take multiple factors, multiple issues going on the same time at relatively young ages in which those folks can die, it’s not a mystery as to why the life expectancy has gone down for the first time in American history since really World War II,” Kelly says.

“After many years of increasing opioid deaths we kind of plateaued and those numbers were receding. And then along comes fentanyl and we have seen a doubling of fentanyl deaths in this community over the last five years,” says Kelly. “The issue with fentanyl in how it relates to life expectancy is that the age of those individuals that are dying is dramatically younger than what we see in other deaths. The average age of a fentanyl death in El Paso County is 35-years-old.”

“You can’t talk about dealing with substance abuse without addressing the mental health side of it,” says Kelly. “About a quarter of our drug deaths have previous diagnosis of a known mental health disorder. And I mean that’s folks that have been to the doctor, have gotten diagnosed and at least have some level of care. That obviously is a gross under-count.”

According to Kelly, suicide numbers have been an increasing issue for more than a decade in Colorado.

“We’ve seen more than a decade and a half of increasing suicide numbers,” Kelly states. “We’ve seen relatively steady suicide numbers the last couple years, which is somewhat heartening, but at the same time we’re still at record levels of suicides even when they plateau.”