Jackson County Drug Free Communities Initiative
This project helped catalyze our ability to fight the opioid epidemic in our community. The outcomes from this project are significant because we can see a unity in our community regarding opioids that we couldn’t see before. We can see there is more understanding of the problem and less denial. Key stakeholders are paying attention and feel better educated regarding the problem.
At a Glance
Jackson County recognized that it needed to provide a public health approach to address the misuse and abuse of prescription and illegal injectable drugs occurring within its community.
The project’s diverse range of efforts and results suggest that collaborating across sectors and implementing targeted resources and education are effective ways to create sustainable change and improvement in addressing drug misuse and abuse.
The Challenge
Abuse and overdose due to prescription and illegal injectable drugs is on the rise in Jackson County, Wisconsin and of growing concern among medical, public health and law enforcement professionals. Preventing heroin and opioid abuse is challenging for these sectors given the county’s expansive geographic area, health and socioeconomic challenges and shortage of prevention and law enforcement resources. A public health approach is needed to help address this problem in order to better inform and collaborate with community leaders and members, and to develop policies and practices to prevent drug misuse and abuse.
Project Goals
The project’s goal was two-fold:
- Improve agency and community collaboration around alcohol and other drug abuse (AODA) prevention efforts
- Prevent and reduce harm related to AODA misuse, abuse and addiction
Results
The project was successful in many of its objectives. It was able to offer new opportunities for community education and created new community resources. These accomplishments included the following:
- Placed two needle drop boxes within Jackson County. One is located at the Jackson County Recycling Center, within the vicinity of the downtown Black River Falls area, and the other was placed at the Ho-Chunk Nation Social Services building. Both are being used regularly and are emptied quarterly unless they are filled before pick up time by Stericycle. Both of these drop boxes are now supervised and funded independently through partner organizations.
- Provided education for local EMS/Fire/LE/first responders regarding Narcan, which changed the way overdose situations are handled by EMS workers in Jackson County. First Responders were not carrying Narcan because they did not know how to use it or what it could do. Once the project hosted this training for local safety/rescue agencies on how to use Narcan, they now carry and use Narcan to save lives.
- Provided education to local agencies (medical/judicial) regarding the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), which gave them opportunity to see how/why the system is used, upcoming changes to the laws and user interface, and resources available for technical assistance. This opportunity was critical to ensuring that prescribers, law enforcement and community were all on the same page in understanding the importance of the PDMP system in the effort to reduce opioid abuse and misuse.
- Established a partnership with Stop the Stigma of Addiction, which allowed the project to reach out to opioid addicts and their families, and facilitate a series of community educational events, in partnership with law enforcement, hospital staff, social services, mental health, coroner, judicial, district attorney and probation/parole. These events were held one evening a week for three weeks, at different locations in Jackson County to ensure community members would have a chance to attend. These events were also covered by local newspaper and were posted live on Facebook.
- Beginning in April of 2018, both law enforcement agencies began participating in the Drug Take-Back Days, collecting unused meds from 2 locations in Jackson County. In April of 2018, they collected 115lbs of pills, 40lbs of liquids and 5lbs of inhalers, making a total of 160lbs of drugs destroyed between both agencies.
- The project was unable to implement a needle exchange. It worked with a local clinic and the Ho-Chunk Nation to make this happen, but it felt there was too much push-back from the community regarding the creation of this resource. The Ho-Chunk Nation still works on this for tribal members and the project hopes their efforts will expand across the entire community.
Looking to the Future
Local clinic and hospital are focusing on prescribing methods with medial staff, including decreasing the amount of opioids being prescribed and increasing use of acetaminophen and ibuprofen, as well as considering mindfulness as an alternative pain therapy.
Lasting Impact
Long-term plans for portions of the project are as follows:
- Good Drugs Gone Bad will continue to be funded through a grant with the school district, which will pay for staff, supplies and snacks.
- The needle drop box is now being funded independently by the Jackson County Public Health Department via the county budget and the other by Ho-Chunk Nation. These boxes continue to reduce harm caused by needles found in parks, playgrounds and homes.
- Community campaigns will continue to be funded via grants to Together for Jackson County Kids (TFJCK) and community donations.
- Drug Take-Backs will continue to be funded via drug enforcement agency, local law enforcement and funding provided by TFJCK.
- Continued community education has been embraced by the Jackson County Health Department, Jackson County UW-Extension and the Black River Memorial Hospital.
- Social Marketing Campaign is complete and still running. The project used the Wisconsin State Dose of
Reality campaign and hosted billboards, Facebook ads, radio PSAs, news articles and even purchased coffee sleeves for the local coffee shop. This campaign brings awareness to the community regarding the dangers of opioid painkillers, and the importance of locking and not sharing medications.