 City, County agree to collaborate on use of pooled opioid settlement funds
TUCSON, May 7, 2024 – In successive unanimous votes at their respective meetings Tuesday, the Pima County Board of Supervisors and the Tucson Mayor and Council entered into a 5-year intergovernmental agreement to pool opioid litigation settlement funding and work collaboratively on strategies that are intended to reduce the incidence of illicit opioid use and its cascading destructive effects on lives and communities.
Additionally, the Board and the Mayor and Council passed resolutions declaring fentanyl abuse and addiction a public health crisis.
The joint actions by the largest local governing jurisdictions in the County will ensure a regional approach to tackling the complex issues associated with opioid addiction. Pima County also has IGAs to pool opioid settlement funds with the Town of Marana and the City of South Tucson. Oro Valley and Sahuarita receive direct allocations from the settlement fund via Pima County.
“Pima County and the City of Tucson joining efforts to declare illicit fentanyl use as a public health crisis creates the cross-jurisdictional relationships needed to save lives,” said Board of Supervisors Chair Adelita Grijalva. “The opioid addiction crisis impacts every community in Pima County, and this effort builds the regional programming and outreach necessary to eliminate opioid addiction in the County; from Catalina to Amado and from Reddington to Ajo.”
Pima County over the past three years has averaged about 500 overdose deaths a year with about 60 percent of those deaths linked to fentanyl. But more than overdose deaths, the ravages of addiction have increased law enforcement encounters, exacerbated rates of homelessness, and stressed the resources of healthcare providers and social service agencies throughout the region.
Pima County joined the One Arizona Distribution of Opioid Settlement Funds Agreement with the state of Arizona in 2021. The fund is expected to disburse more than $100 million over 18-years to Pima County. The County Health Department is the lead agency per the One Arizona agreement and distributes the settlement funding to the participating municipalities in the County. The formula in the One Arizona Agreement allocates 72 percent of the region’s settlement funding to Pima County, 23 percent to Tucson, and Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita, and South Tucson receive the remaining 5 percent. To date, the County has received more than $17 million for allocation to the region.
The County and City agreed to work collaboratively on how to use the settlement funds and outlined in the fentanyl Public Health Crisis Resolutions initial goals of the agreement:
- Develop a regional campaign that creates awareness of mental health and substance use issues.
- Convene a cross-jurisdictional, cross-sector response team with jurisdictional partners to coordinate efforts to reduce opioid-related morbidity and mortality.
- Work with non-profits, faith-based communities, and community coalitions, to identify hotspots, provide rapid follow-up and navigation to services after a nonfatal overdose, provide comprehensive support to individuals and families living with substance use disorder and impacted by overdose deaths.
- Work with partners to deliver Medication-Assisted Treatment in a pre-hospital setting, provide training in overdose prevention and Narcan access for across the community to prevent overdose incidents.
- Develop a comprehensive collaborative fentanyl response plan that prioritizes equitable evidence-based practices, youth intervention, multilingual/multicultural approaches to public outreach and programming that connects individuals and families to substance misuse and prevention services.
- And pledge to advocate locally, regionally, and nationally for policies that support behavioral health infrastructure, destigmatize substance misuse, and strengthen mental health supports in schools.
"We recognize this issue is so significant that it needs every level of government to work together, especially public health, public safety, housing and the courts,” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero. "We can't enforce our way out of this problem. The City of Tucson and Pima County are working to bring down silos and bring together the necessary resources to combat fentanyl and opioid misuse in our community.”
Deputy Pima County Administrator and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francisco Garcia said the County and City have already launched numerous efforts to combat the opioid crisis. The Pima County Health Department has developed strategic action plans and collaborative partnerships to reduce drug use and its effects. Most of these responses are led by the department’s Community Mental Health, Addiction, and Injury division. The department offers:
- Free trainings and presentations
- Case management services
- Supply distribution at community outreach events
- Prescription drug disposal through Dispose-a-med
- Lifepoint syringe service access points
- Medication Assisted Treatment initiation and connection to treatment
- Distribution of Narcan and other harm reduction supplies
Complementing the opioid settlement funds are several large grants Pima County has received to reduce incidence of substance abuse, especially opioids. In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Overdose Data to Action grant program awarded the County Health Department $2.5 million to implement programs and services to reduce the harm and stigma of addiction, increase collaboration between governments and nongovernmental agencies responding to or affected by the opioid crisis, and build technological resources and data collection infrastructure to improve decision making for resource deployment.
In Tucson, the Mayor and Council have implemented multiple new and innovative programs that assist individuals struggling with opioid addiction and related issues. The Community Service Officers, Housing First, Community Safety, Health, and Wellness, and evidence-based Place Network Investigation programs all put the right work in the right hands of specialized service professionals and are integral to mitigating the devastating effects of opioid addiction by providing crucial wrap around services. Additionally, these programs provide valuable data to the County Health Department to inform prevention strategies.
The County-City IGA can be renewed for three additional five-year periods.
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