Title
Creating a Project Position to Provide Project Management for the "Pathways to Recovery Madison & Dane County" Initiative to Combat Opioid Abuse
Body
2020 RES-149
The opioid crisis is a public health emergency threatening the wellbeing and lives of individuals who use drugs and impacts communities, first responders, the criminal justice system, child welfare and foster care, and behavioral health systems. In 2018, Dane County experienced 85 opioid-involved deaths, 478 opioid-related hospital visits, and 501 ambulance runs for suspected opioid overdoses.
The U.S Department of Justice established a Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Site-Based Program (COAP) to reduce opioid abuse and the number of overdose fatalities by supporting a comprehensive, collaborative approach. The Madison Police Department (MPD), in partnership with Public Health Madison Dane County (PHMDC), Dane County Department of Human Services, Madison Fire Department (MFD), and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute applied for and were awarded a COAP grant for $1,200,000 to create a new “Pathways to Recovery Madison & Dane County” initiative.
Pathways to Recovery will support data-driven solutions to promote treatment and recovery, and support individuals, families, and communities throughout Dane County by developing and implementing protocols to deflect individuals struggling with a substance use disorder away from the criminal justice system into social supports and/or treatment services.
The initiative will create an Addiction Resource Team (MPD addiction resource officer, MFD community paramedic, and certified peer specialist) and support a project coordinator and a project evaluator. The Addiction Resource Team will facilitate the delivery of harm reduction messaging and distribution of naloxone/Narcan as well as provide a direct link to an assessment and treatment referrals to individuals struggling with a substance use disorder through a combination of pre-arrest divers...
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