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Q&A
DOHMH's response on community involvement and ongoing efforts to address the opioid crisis
0:50:11
ยท
110 sec
Rebecca Linn-Walton from DOHMH responds to concerns about community involvement and ongoing efforts to address the opioid crisis.
- DOHMH emphasizes its approach of contracting with local providers to invest dollars into the community
- Linn-Walton highlights the ongoing nature of the opioid epidemic and the challenges it presents
- She notes that while progress has been made, including a 1% decrease in overdose deaths, the crisis is far from resolved
- DOHMH continues to invest in outreach workers and various programs to address syringe litter and provide support services
Rebecca Linn-Walton
0:50:11
And I think the only thing that's not happening the way you're stating it is that we contract with local providers rather than doing it out of our offices because we think it's much more important to get dollars into the community, to invest our dollars into the community.
0:50:24
That's what the opioid settlement funding is supposed to do.
0:50:27
We're trying to get it out there so that community members leading the organizations are having access to it.
0:50:32
And I do just have to say that it's not the case that people don't care and don't want to fix the problem.
0:50:38
That there hasn't been anything to improve it.
0:50:40
We have seen parks cleaned up.
0:50:42
We have seen layers and layers of more and more happening.
0:50:46
That's why we're starting new programs because we're constantly trying to get further towards fixed.
0:50:51
It continues to be a problem because we continue to be in the right that smack in the middle of an opioid epidemic and crisis.
0:50:59
And so what you're seeing is a crisis happening that we're responding to and it's going to take time.
0:51:03
We had a one percent decrease.
0:51:05
That's not much.
0:51:06
It's something that's really important as a clinician for me because there were so many years where I was just seeing people I was working with dying.
0:51:14
And so it's so important to see people start to stabilize.
0:51:17
But it's not we're not there yet.
0:51:19
And so that's what people are seeing in their community.
0:51:22
They're seeing the pain right there laid out for them of the opioid epidemic.
0:51:27
And so we're trying to work on that, but it takes time and it takes new things and new programs.
0:51:33
So the health department has invested our money in outreach workers who do pick up hundreds of thousands of syringes through kiosks, through outreach workers.
0:51:43
We're picking up many, many, many syringes.
0:51:45
All of those state licensed facilities and pharmacies, they're picking up syringes too.
0:51:50
It just continues to be a problem in certain areas, and that's why we're constantly saying, but what can we do for this area that's working over here?
0:51:57
What are we not doing here that they need to help it work over there too?