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- Our Plan to address the Opioid Crisis
Our Plan to address the Opioid Crisis
The Pierce County Opioid Task Force action plan focuses on wellness and the whole spectrum of prevention in its three domains:
1. Prevention/education: The initial efforts will focus on students and the family and community around them. They will encompass media and social marketing campaigns and community education.
- Implement/expand evidence-based health-risk behavior (including substance abuse) school programs.
- Conduct education, outreach, and social marketing to parents and community members to create positive norms and behaviors.
2. Access to treatment: Increase access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in clinical, community-based, and criminal justice settings.
- Train and increase the prescription of buprenorphine (Suboxone) by primary care providers.
- Increase methadone treatment facilities, especially beyond the metropolitan core.
- Implement innovative, alternative delivery practices, such as:
- Telemedicine
- Mobile MAT
- MAT at Needle Exchange
- Initiate MAT in jail or emergency room
3. Ensuring “the right services at the right time”: Diversion away from inappropriate and expensive systems (i.e., Criminal Justice system, emergency rooms); ensure people receive the appropriate medical, behavioral, and social services they need.
- Expand TFD CARES (Community, Assistance, Referral, and Education Service).
- Expand drug courts, mental health courts.
- Train and implement Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) in:
i. Schools
ii. Medical clinics
iii. First responders
iv. Referral centers (e.g., 211, Coordinated Entry for homeless, veterans’ services)
- Establish a diversion center with referral to services and treatment that will provide pre-arrest diversion.
- Expand Mobile Community Intervention Response Team (MCIRT).
- Create best practices and referral systems to addictions specialists and substance abuse treatment providers throughout the county.
As the County-City Task Force continues to refine and implement the action plan, it will improve health, raise awareness, reduce stigma, and address many of the barriers identified in Section I. Participation in the NLC Mayors Institute is timely in give us guidance on how to: Create an effective regional strategy to respond to the opioid epidemic and Shift from tertiary prevention to wellness and primary and secondary prevention.
The City of Tacoma, Pierce County, and our partners are ready to move forward.
The City of Tacoma, Pierce County, and our partners are ready to move forward.