Jessica Webb
editor@thesmokymountaintimes.com
Russ Harris with the Southwestern Regional Commission presented an update on a regional study being prepared to help counties decide how to invest opioid settlement funds at the Swain County Board of Commissioners at their regular meeting Tuesday, July 16.
In its early stages, the study, funded by Dogwood Health carried out surveys and identified needs assessment priorities.
Swain County is getting $3,274,418 and has received $609,447 thus far. This includes payments from National Opioid Settlement, Walgreens Trust, TEVA, Allergan, CVS and Walgreens. The settlement is from agreements North Carolina Attorney General’s office participated in involving litigation over the role the companies had in creating and fueling the opioid epidemic. Since 2021, $56 billion in national settlements have been announced with $1.5 billion coming to North Carolina.
Harris shared how the study identified strengths of the region as well as needs.
“Coming out of the seven-county efforts, a couple of strengths are there are treatment options in the region, and there’s a strong history of collaboration in the area, and there are already efforts underway to reduce overdose deaths,” he said in a follow-up phone call.
“The opportunities and things we still need to improve include even though we know there are treatment centers, there aren’t enough. The big thing we heard is there is a lot of stigma around opioid use and that presents a big barrier for people seeking treatment when they need it.”
The study also found it’s not always clear to people how to be connected to the care they are seeking. So, a few ways that could be addressed include peer support and post-overdose response teams.
“The third is naloxone distribution,” Harris said. “A lot of the funding to distribute that has gone away.”
In the study, Swain County’s top priorities were identified as: connections to care, treating overdoses, supporting recovery and addressing the needs of families and babies.
All the decisions on spending are county level, we’re providing planning for it, Harris pointed out.
Local governments can proceed under either Option A or Option B.
“Option A is 12 proven strategies. The state has said we know these things work, there’s a lot of data,” explained Harris. “Option B is a little more strategies people are doing, but there’s not as much data. You have a more cumbersome planning process, and the administrative load is so much heavier.”
Arcoss the state, 58 local governments have chosen option A and seven have chosen Option B.
“It’s up to the county what they want to decide to do,” Harris said, but he notes, Option B could be more cumbersome, especially for rural counties.
The three main priorities identified regionally could be covered in Option A, and include recovery support services, naloxone distribution and post-overdose response team.
“There’s a lot of support on this it’s not something counties usually handle,” he said.
North Carolina Association of County Commissioners also has an opioid settlement team that can help the counties get into the right strategy.
From here, local governments will establish their funds, authorize spending and follow the reporting requirements to CORE-NC.
According to Harris, the goal is to have the regional study for the plans completed in August. Swain County has expressed interest in some further studying for the county-level once that is completed.
For the commissioners, the next step will be deciding what strategy they want to take and submitting the paperwork. Harris said one of the good things about the settlement funding and the way the state has set things up is counties don’t have to spend all the money at once and they can adjust strategies in the future if they choose to do so.
Other decisions
Also at the commission meeting was North Carolina Department of Transportation District Engineer Cody Weddle with a presentation about a plan to change the intersection at NC 28 South and 74. After they heard the presentation, the board did not agree with the need for the proposal and declined to adopt a resolution, according to the minutes.
Commissioners agreed to continue with $5,000 budgeted for the Swain County Agricultural Fair opposed to the requested $10,000. The fair board has requested $10,000 for the past couple of years. This year’s event will begin Friday night and extend through Saturday.
In other matter, interim manager Lottie Barker told the board they will need to take a Board of Health training during their next meeting.
During reports, Commissioner Kenneth Parton as in previous meetings suggested they need to revisit the county animal services ordinance that was adopted in 2019.
The county has received applications for the county manager position, and the commissioner committee plans to review those and decide on applicants to call in for interviews.
Learn more about the opioid settlement fund at ncopioidsettlement.org.