ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Children’s Hospital will provide 1,000 free lockboxes over the next year to patients at risk of suicide or poisonings, both of which are increasingly taking the lives of Missouri children.
The lockboxes are big enough to store several medicine containers or a handgun. Only those with a key to its padlock can open it. Families will be offered a lockbox when they come to the emergency department with a child experiencing a behavioral health crisis or accidental poisoning, health officials said.
“A locked box can be crucial to protecting older children, who may impulsively take medications as a form of self-harm or by accident,” said Dr. Lindsay Clukies , a Washington University emergency medicine physician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
The lockboxes are free thanks to a grant provided by the St. Louis Health Department. Missouri has seen an alarming increase in poisoning deaths among children under the age of 18 in recent years, according to Missouri’s latest child fatality review report .
For seven years prior to 2020, there were an average of 11 poisoning deaths a year. In 2022, that jumped to 62 — a more than fourfold increase. Of those 62 poisoning deaths, 43 were ruled accidental and the rest intentional.
The synthetic opioid fentanyl was involved in many of the deaths, the report showed. Fentanyl is prescribed as a pain reliever in shot, pill, powder, lozenge or patch form. It is more potent than morphine, and even the smallest adul.