Opioid settlement money supporting local efforts

Three area initiatives will receive more than $29,000 to combat opioid addiction under a set of grants approved during the Jan. 20 meeting of the Waseca County Board of Commissioners. The grants were recommended by a 16-member Opioid Settlement Advisory Council offered through the county’s department of public health.

 

According to information shared at the meeting, the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton school district will receive $15,800 to initiate a “Hope Squad” program. According to information online, the program trains two staff members as counselors and advisors, giving them tools to help students become peer-to-peer supporters. The program also provides tools for activities and interactions meant to help build a positive atmosphere grounded in mutual trust.

 

Hope Squad was founded in 2004 by a high school principal in Utah who made a personal vow to design a system that would help improve student mental health, reducing harmful trends toward drug addiction and suicide.

 

The Waseca County Department of Corrections will receive $10,500 toward a specialized youth counseling program operated through Fernbrook Family Center. Nicknamed RESET, the program works especially with youth who have entered the court system or who are in a less formal “diversion” process meant to help change their behavior before it potentially leads to criminal charges.

 

According to information shared during the county board meeting, the therapy is meant to help lead youth to examine the motivation behind certain behaviors and increase their recognition of what makes those choices undesirable. The therapy is meant to provide “structured intervention to address decision-making, coping skills, accountability, and goal setting.”

 

A group of community-building, family-centered events for graduates from the Waseca County Drug Court will be supported by a $3,000 grant from opioid settlement funds. According to county attorney Rachel Cornelius, who will be planning the activities, graduates gather for events like picnics, bowling, outdoor sports and the like to help continue the atmosphere of mutual support and community that was created during their drug court experience.

 

Cornelius mentioned the events are very important in building a stable, new lifestyle which helps graduates keep from being drawn back to habits and places they frequented before entering recovery.

 

As she presented these three recommendations to county board members, county public health nurse Sarah Berry shared that these three agencies were among six which had applied for funding. The other applicants, she commented, will have a chance to update or modify their requests and submit them again for a March deadline.

 

She also revealed the grants are on a “reimbursement” basis–that is, recipients must submit evidence of expenditures made and will then receive the allotted funding.

 

Money for the grants comes from Waseca County’s share of about $300 million awarded to Minnesota from a set of multistate lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies which profited from highly addictive opioid medications. 

 

At this time, Berry stated, the county’s opioid advisory committee has more than $300,000 available for dispersal.