Drug & Alcohol Rehab For Rochester, Indiana

Rochester is a small town in northern Indiana, located about 60 miles west of Fort Wayne along Highway 14, and about 100 miles directly north of Indianapolis along Highway 31. Serving as the county seat of Fulton County, the city of Rochester has a population of 6,270, despite occupying less than 6 square miles of land — nearly 20% of which is taken up by Lake Manitou.

The city is known as the home of various historically significant buildings, including the Romanesque courthouse that features lion statues by the entrance. People from all around Fulton County and much of northern Indiana travel to Lake Manitou for boating and other water activities in the summer. However, Rochester’s small size has caused a slow but steady exodus over the past few decades, which has partially contributed to the contracting economy, particularly during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The median household income in Rochester is $62,885, which falls below the state median of $69,477. Poverty rates are also relatively high — 15.4% in Rochester compared to 12.6% statewide. [1] While Rochester has largely weathered the storm of recent economic difficulties, the small city has not overcome one mounting problem: substance abuse.

Rochester and the rest of Fulton County have not been quite as affected by the ongoing addiction crisis as many municipalities throughout Indiana, but the city and county are not immune to it, either. Over the past decade, overdoses and deaths have generally been on the rise, though the most recent data may indicate that the crisis is subsiding in Rochester.

Based on the most recent data, marijuana, meth, and alcohol are the most commonly abused substances in Rochester. The city also sees the abuse of other substances, such as prescription opioids, cocaine, and heroin.

Continue reading to learn about substance abuse and addiction in Rochester, Indiana. And remember, if you or a loved one are fighting addiction in Rochester or the surrounding area, you can always reach out to Addiction Rehab Centers for help.

Drug and Alcohol Addiction in Rochester

Rochester is a small community that, despite its status as an incorporated city, lacks the resources to fight addiction on its own. Like most other cities and townships throughout Indiana, Rochester depends on county administrators to collect substance abuse data and report the figures to the state. While Fulton County maintains substance abuse data for Rochester, it also combines this data with cases originating in other nearby municipalities, such as Akron and Athens. This means that it can be difficult to separate data for Rochester alone.

However, it’s important to consider that Rochester is the largest city in the county by population, accounting for roughly 30% of all residents in Fulton County. Additionally, it contributes more overdoses, deaths, and arrests involving addictive substances than any other city in the county. By some estimates, Rochester contributes nearly half of all substance abuse cases recorded in Fulton County. This means that evaluating county-level data is still an effective method for understanding the severity of addiction and substance abuse in Rochester alone.

As of the latest census, Fulton County is home to about 20,480 people. This makes it one of the smaller counties in the region, and one of the counties with the fewest number of fatal overdoses (in most years). While fatal overdoses did increase during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the figures have remained relatively low since 2016. [2] The table below shows how deaths involving all drugs (including alcohol) have changed in the area over the past few years:

*Data for 2023 and 2024 is provisional and only accounts may be subject to change.

When dealing with such small figures, it can be easy to overestimate the severity of changes from year to year. For example, fatal overdoses doubled between 2018 and 2019, but this meant there were just 3 more deaths in 2019 than in 2018. 2021 was the worst year on record in Fulton County, with 10 deaths attributed to substance abuse. However, the numbers have since declined drastically, and have generally declined over the entire period. Between 2016 and 2022, annual overdose deaths declined by 66.6% (from 6 deaths to just 2 deaths).

The data for 2023 and 2024 is still provisional, but we do know that less than 5 deaths have been recorded each year. This is too little data to draw any conclusions, but it could indicate that the decline in deaths since 2021 could continue.

Since there are so few fatal overdoses recorded in Fulton County, non-fatal overdoses offer a much better metric for gauging the severity of the addiction crisis in the region. Far more people survive overdoses, and this holds true in Rochester and the rest of Fulton County. This data is also very easy to obtain, as nearly all non-fatal overdoses are recorded via hospital discharges and emergency department visits involving addictive substances. The table below shows the relevant overdose data in Fulton County between 2016 and 2024: [3]

*Data for 2023 and 2024 is provisional and only accounts may be subject to change.

In direct contrast to fatal overdoses, non-fatal overdoses actually increased between 2016 and 2022. Over this period, fatal overdoses increased by 21%. Once again, however, 2021 was the worst year on record, with a record high of 56 non-fatal overdoses. While the data for 2023 and 2024 is still provisional, it’s surprising to see that 2023 has already recorded more non-fatal overdoses than the previous year, even if it’s only by a slim margin.

It’s also important to consider the relationship between fatal and non-fatal overdoses and how that relationship has changed over the past few years. In 2016, there were a total of 44 overdoses on record. 13.6% of those overdoses were fatal. By 2022, there were a total of 46 overdoses on record, and just 4.3% of those overdoses were fatal. This is a trend that we haven’t seen in many other counties in Indiana, but it may indicate that local efforts in Rochester and Fulton County are working to keep the total number of overdoses at bay and greatly reduce the number of fatalities caused by addiction.

Types of Substance Abuse in Rochester

In 2023 and 2024, marijuana, meth, and alcohol were the most abused drugs in Fulton County. This data was collected using arrest and re-arrest records, which provide an overview of substance possession and abuse, but not a completely accurate picture of which types of substances are being abused. For example, there may be many people in Rochester who abuse alcohol or prescription medications but evade arrest. In any case, here is the latest data from Indiana’s Next Level Recovery program showing the arrests involving different kinds of addictive substances between 2016 and 2024 in Fulton County:

*Statistics for 2023 and 2024 are still preliminary and do not account for the entire calendar year(s).

Unlike many other counties in Indiana, Fulton County has not seen a substantial change in the total number of arrests between 2016 and 2022. Arrests spiked in 2018, but otherwise, they have consistently remained between 220 and 260 each year. More importantly, the types of substances involved in these arrests have changed over the years.

Alcohol has become slightly less prevalent in recent years, though it is still one of the most commonly abused drugs in the county. Cocaine and prescription opioids account for a relatively small number of drug offenses, though the latter has become more prevalent since 2016. Marijuana and meth have both remained consistently high, with meth arrests reaching alarming heights during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lastly, drug paraphernalia arrests have seen a slight decline over the years, and these are often linked to meth or heroin abuse. Since the data for 2023 and 2024 is still provisional, it’s too early to determine if the existing trends have changed substantially for these two years.