Columbus, NC — Thanks to financial support from the Dogwood Health Trust, Polk County’s Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee, in collaboration with several community partners, is excited to announce the start of a series of community listening sessions. This is one part of a larger community effort in response to the opioid epidemic. The information collected from these events will help inform the strategies selected for the County’s response to the opioid epidemic. Community members will be asked to review strategy options that are allowed under North Carolina’s Opioid Planning Agreement.
Nearly 12 North Carolinians die every day from opioid overdose. Per the NC Department of Health and Human Services, 12 Polk County residents died from an overdose in 2022, and in 2023 there were 23 emergency department visits due to overdose. Polk County along with the other 99 counties of North Carolina signed on to a Class Action Lawsuit in 2018 in an effort to hold drug makers, distributors and several retail pharmacies chains accountable for creating and fueling the epidemic. This national opioid litigation has resulted in a payout to Polk County of slightly over $3 million that will be distributed over the course of 18 years.
The Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee was formed to help assess feedback from the listening sessions and determine feasible high-impact mitigation strategies, and the most effective and appropriate use of the settlement dollars. The Committee is a multi-sector and collaborative group that envisions a resilient recovery community strengthened by evidence-based early intervention, prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery services. These efforts will be supported by a holistic, equitable, empathetic, and stigma-free care model that addresses the challenges of opioid use disorder and any co-occurring substance misuse or mental health illness.
The Polk County Community Health Assessment has also identified substance misuse as a health priority for Polk County in 2021. The latest assessment showed that “all other unintentional injuries” (not including motor vehicle accidents) was the third-leading cause of death among residents, only after diseases of the heart and cancer. Moreover, there was a significant increase, from 37.1% in 2018 to 55.1% in 2021, in the prevalence of individuals who self-reported that their life had been negatively affected by substance use (by self or someone else). This upward trend was also seen in the rate of hospital discharges with infant drug withdrawal diagnosis during 2015-2019 when the rate increased from 19.5 to 22.6 per 1,000 live births.
“The data is pretty clear, substance misuse should be a priority focus, but it is also a related factor of several negative outcomes in our community. From negative health outcomes, employment issues, child welfare impacts, to incarceration. However, thanks to the national opioid settlement funds we can put evidence-based practices in place to address negative health outcomes in Polk County. Communities across the nation have been combating substance misuse issues with one-hand behind their back, but now with these dollars we can get ahead in this challenging situation, said Joshua Kennedy, Polk County Health and Human Services Director.
The Committee and its collaborating organizations encourage the public to participate in these community listening sessions. These will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in various communities across the county as seen in the schedule that follows:
· Thursday, May 16th at the Sunny View Clubhouse, 95 Coopers Gap Rd, Mill Spring
· Tuesday, May 21st at The Congregational Church, United Church of Christ in Tryon, 210 Melrose Avenue, Tryon
· Tuesday, May 28th at Wheat Greek Baptist Church, 131 Wheat Creek Lane, Rutherfordton
· Tuesday, June 4th at Saluda United Methodist Church, 132 Greenville St., Saluda
· Tuesday, June 11th at WithALL, 76 N Peak St., Columbus
If you are interested, but unable to attend one of the above meetings and would like additional information or to share your thoughts, please feel free to contact Yanet Cisneros, Opioid Response Planner, at ycisneros@polknc.org or by phone at 828-899-0843.