Opioid Crisis Response Update

SWACH has taken a community-focused, cross-sector approach to addressing the Opioid Crisis. Since our Opioid Action Summit last October, we have partnered with several organizations and community members to move the work forward. Here are some of our accomplishments from the last year:

• Klickitat County Opioid Treatment Network has served to innovate and implement policies and procedures for offering buprenorphine to those who would benefit and continuing to support those patients in the community. The members of the Klickitat OTN have been amazing champions for getting people connected with the care and support they need including starting a suboxone clinic in the hospital and collaborating with the county sheriff’s office to work to get medication to those who need it.

• Skamania County Public Health has worked closely with SWACH to form a Skamania County Substance Use Disorder Taskforce to address, among other things, integration of services across sectors and developing solutions using local perspectives and innovation. This is the first taskforce of its kind in Skamania County.

• Clark County Opioid Taskforce was founded this year by SWACH. The Clark County Opioid Taskforce (CCOT) focuses on developing cross-sector collaboration to have a positive impact on the opioid epidemic. Many people from the community come together each month to work toward integrated solutions focusing on Prevention, Treatment, Recovery, and Overdose Prevention. The CCOT has created networks throughout the county to better coordinate care and serve our residents struggling with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). In addition, the taskforce has supported many of the events and efforts on this list and is currently working to finalize a policy agenda for this year’s legislative session.

• The Clark County Opioid Treatment Network has worked to integrate buprenorphine administration and referral to ongoing care throughout PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. We have succeeded in both creating and implementing procedure and reducing stigma in many departments across the hospital. In addition, we have continued to work to support peer workforce integration and referral to follow-on treatment.

• More than 80 providers have attended Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) waiver trainings in our region coordinated or supported by SWACH. At least 25 of those providers have received their waiver from the DEA, which allows them to prescribe buprenorphine. This nearly doubles the number of waivered providers in Clark County.

• SWACH has partnered with Kelley Groen-Sieckmann at ESD 112 on the Starts with One Campaign and the Drug Take Back Event.
  • The Starts with One Campaign is an information distribution campaign to inform and educate about prescription drug misuse and the importance of safe storage, use and disposal of prescriptions. We distributed 3,950 rack cards, 330 posters, 1,000, stickers and 670 fact sheets across Clark, Skamania, and Klickitat Counties.
  • The Drug Take Back Event lead by ESD 112 is held 2 times each year with support from a host of partners across Southwest Washington. The most recent event on October 26th, collected 5,304 pounds of medications and 1,733 pounds of sharps/syringes. This event helps to keep medications out of our landfills and safely away from any who might abuse them.

• Clark County Public Health, Clark County Opioid Taskforce, and SWACH partnered to hold two overdose prevention training events. 86 community members have been trained and equipped with naloxone to respond and save lives in the event of an opioid overdose.

• Clark County Opioid Taskforce and SWACH partnered with Lyn Anderson and many others to support an International Overdose Awareness Day Event on August 31st. This event highlighted the community members that have been lost to drug overdose, it served to heighten awareness of the damage this crisis is continuing to do to families in Southwest Washington.

• November 6th, SWACH and Providence have partnered to bring you the Southwest Washington Community Health Summit 2019: Understanding Opioid Use Disorder and Chronic Pain Management. An event that highlights experts in this area of complex healthcare.

We are proud of the work SWACH and our partners have done in our region to support those effected by the Opioid Crisis. Would you like to be a part of the solution? Would you like to join a taskforce or other effort in your area? Please contact jim.jensen@southwestach.org for more information.