Clinton County lauded for use of opioid settlement dollars
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Officials in Clinton County and the city of Frankfort are being recognized for their collaborative approach to utilize the funding they’ve received from the state’s allocation of the National Opioid Settlement.
Indiana received more than $500 million from the $26 billion settlement with Cardinal Health Inc., McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp. and Johnson & Johnson for their roles in the national opioid crisis.
During its annual conference last month, the Indiana County Commissioners presented the Clinton County Commissioners with an award celebrating a plan between the county and Frankfort to create a plan supporting the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders over the next 15 years.
Commissioner Jordan Brewer told Inside INdiana Business he believed early on that collaborating with local partners was going to be key with the funding they received.
“The first thing that kind of came to my mind—and our mind as a group—was although we’re the entity that is going to oversee it, we really don’t work in that segment of the community on a daily basis,” Brewer said. “We have community partners that do such a wonderful job of trying to help our recovery here in Clinton County. So, how do we get this money out and maximize its use?”
Brewer said Clinton County has received nearly $900,000 to date, while the city of Frankfort has received nearly $500,000.
The commissioners partnered with the Healthy Communities of Clinton County Coalition, Clinton County Councilor Carol Price, and Frankfort Mayor Judith Sheets to come up with a plan to use the funding.
The partners decided to pool their settlement dollars through 2038 and use the funding to fill gaps in service for the prevention and treatment of substance use disorder, particularly in at-risk and underserved populations.
To do that, an Opioid Settlement Funding Committee was formed, comprised of community partners that Brewer said include groups that deal with this type of work every day. He said one of the main areas of focus is on prevention.
“There’s a lot of education for our county personnel that deal with it on a daily basis, first responders, trying to teach them how to handle situations better, but then also getting into schools and doing prevention there,” Brewer said. “And then the second phase of it was we do have One80 Recovery Center for men, as well as INWell, which is for women in our community, and dispersing funds to those that are already working in that in that segment here in Clinton County.”
Doug Huntsinger, executive director of the state’s Next Level Drug Prevention, Treatment and Enforcement Division, gave high praise to the collaborative effort.
“Their approach to using both the county and city dollars cooperatively to fill gaps in service is a model communities across our state should replicate,” Huntsinger said in written remarks.
The collaboration has also been noticed on a national level.
The county recently hosted a roundtable featuring Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, which included stories from residents who had gone through treatment from the One80 Recovery Center.
“They shared their personal story of how they’ve kind of fallen down and now they’ve been picked back up, and they’re back in our community and working,” said Brewer. “And the impact that had on me personally, just hearing someone’s personal story, was huge.”
Brewer emphasized that while the Clinton County Commissioners might be receiving the recognition for the effort, the real credit goes to the groups that are utilizing the funding themselves.
“It is the people that we have put in place that are doing the ground work that deserve all the credit,” he said. “We’re just kind of getting a lot of the notoriety for it, because we’re the entity that oversees it. But those individuals are doing tremendous work in our community, and to hear the one-on-one stories of how it’s impacting people’s lives is phenomenal.”
Brewer said he agrees that the blueprint of what they’re doing in Clinton County is one that can be replicated elsewhere, it’s the individuals on the ground that are crucial to making the effort a success, as well as not worrying about who gets the credit for it.
“We didn’t need or want that credit for it; we just wanted to see the money be put to the best use,” he said. “And so that would be something that I think other communities need to take a look at is don’t don’t care who gets the credit. Just try and have an impact in your community.”
A county ordinance has been put in place to keep the Opioid Settlement Funding Committee in place through 2038. The organizations represented on the committee include Clinton County’s EMS, Sheriff’s Department, Community Corrections, Health Department, and Probation Office, as well as Healthy Communities of Clinton County, the Frankfort Police Department, and INWell.