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Q&A
Discussion on allocation of opioid settlement funds
2:13:28
ยท
4 min
Council Member Linda Lee inquires about the allocation of $23.4 million in opioid settlement funds received by DOHMH. Officials provide a breakdown of fund allocation for various programs and initiatives aimed at reducing overdose deaths.
- Funds allocated to expand wraparound services, buprenorphine access, and recovery support
- Discussion on the discrepancy in reported numbers and request for clarification
- Request for more detailed reporting on fund usage in future annual reports
Linda Lee
2:13:28
I'm going switch gears a little bit to the opioid settlement funds because I know DOHMH received $23,400,000 in fiscal year twenty five and some of these questions have been asked already, but as discussed in the hearing, 4,100,000.0 will be allocated to expand wraparound services at all the 14 syringe service providers with 1,000,000 to expand the relay program and 3,000,000 to improve and expand services on Staten Island.
2:13:54
An additional 4,000,000 will be allocated to expand buprenorphine access and 3,000,000 will expand recovery support.
2:14:02
What will the remaining 15,800,000.0 be spent on?
Michelle Morse
2:14:05
Thank you for the question Chair Lee.
2:14:08
We do work very closely with OMB on how the funds for OSF are allocated.
2:14:14
It's a combination of us at the New York City Health Department plus health and hospitals plus OCME that all receive OSF funding to try to again meet our goal in healthy NYC of reducing overdose deaths by twenty five percent by 02/1930.
2:14:32
So we are continuing to find ways to do that work.
2:14:35
For the specific question about where the 15,000,000 is gonna go, I'm gonna ask my colleague Rebecca Lynn Walton to join me at the table again to share some more specifics.
Deirdre De Leo
2:14:51
Do you want to take that?
2:14:53
Okay.
Rebecca Linn-Walton
2:14:54
So happy to talk about the health departments.
2:14:57
And thank you so much for having an OSF specific hearing a few months ago.
2:15:01
That was very welcome and needed.
2:15:03
And yeah, so I can talk about we have a number of, we have five really exciting initiatives.
2:15:08
So we have expansion to all of the continuum of care on Staten Island, and we have the ongoing investment in on points care.
2:15:17
We also have the relay expansion you mentioned with the hospitals.
2:15:22
We also have the treatment initiative to expand access for opioid use disorder at 10 recovery clinics, and that was the model I talked about before, wanting that to really be the standard of care across the city for same day access to medication assisted therapy.
2:15:35
Then we also have recovery supports expansion, which expands recovery supports
Stephanie Cannon
2:15:41
at the
Rebecca Linn-Walton
2:15:41
eight recovery centers across the city.
2:15:43
So I can easily say that it's full investment across the continuum of care.
Linda Lee
2:15:47
Okay, so there's no remaining $15,800,000
Rebecca Linn-Walton
2:15:51
I defer to my colleague, the CFO, for numbers.
Aaron Anderson
2:15:55
Yeah, all of the funding has been accounted for.
2:15:59
A part of the balance that you were talking about is $3,000,000 for OCME, so we defer to them on that piece.
Linda Lee
2:16:05
Yeah.
2:16:05
That one I know is going to them, but I was just because according to our numbers, we're seeing that there's a $15,500,000 to be spent.
2:16:14
And so I'm just wondering where that money's going to go.
Aaron Anderson
2:16:19
I think it's I mean, we can quickly run through the list if it be helpful.
Linda Lee
2:16:22
Okay, because I'm not good at math, so I need help with this.
Aaron Anderson
2:16:25
Yeah, so the round two expansion was really so Staten Island was $3,000,000 SSP service expansion was 4,100,000.0 Relay was $1,000,000 Treatment expansion was 4,000,000 Recovery expansion was 3,000,000 So that's the 15,100,000.0 increase in the round two.
2:16:41
And then that's on top of the remaining funds that were allocated to OnPoint, which was $8,400,000
Linda Lee
2:16:48
Okay.
2:16:48
Because there's 23,400,000.0 in FY '25 and then another 26.9 in FY '26, so I just want to make sure.
Aaron Anderson
2:16:56
Yeah, so the numbers are a little bit different than the ones you have.
2:16:58
So the correct number is about 20 in the current year and about 24 starting next year.
Linda Lee
2:17:04
Okay.
2:17:05
So maybe we could have a follow-up conversation because I want to figure out where the discrepancy in those numbers are.
2:17:11
I know that DOHMH publishes an annual report on the opioid overdose prevention programs that receive settlement funding.
2:17:18
Would it be possible for future reports to include the amount of opioid settlement funds that each program uses as well as information on what the funds are spent on?
Michelle Morse
2:17:29
We are required by law or the city is required by law to report on how we spend all of the OSF funding annually.
2:17:37
So we can certainly look at that report, that annual report that's required by law and see what the opportunities are to make it