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For Immediate Release
Date: June 27, 2016
Contact: Leslie Piotrowski
(847) 377-8055
(847) 309-9683
To address the growing
number of Lake County residents struggling with opioid addictions, the Lake
County Health Department/Community Health Center is doubling the capacity of
its Medication-Assisted Treatment program. It is expanding treatment to 200
people struggling with opioid addictions through a grant of $325,000 from the
Health Resources and Services Administration.
“The expansion of our MAT program is
an essential next step in the regional effort to address the opioid epidemic,
which has had a devastating impact on local families and their communities,”
said Mark Pfister, the Health Department’s interim Executive Director. “The expansion of this program is imperative
to helping people change addictive behaviors for the long-term.”
The population of
residents in need of substance abuse services has substantially increased in
Lake County in alignment with national trends. In 1998, the county had 30
deaths that were attributed to substance abuse.
By 2010, that number had more than tripled to 92. Opioid related deaths
in 2008 were 47 and increased in 2015 to 58. Heroin-related deaths in 2008 were
30 and increased in 2015 to 42.
For decades, the Lake
County Health Department/Community Health Center has been the primary provider of
substance abuse services for residents in the county. Its services include
screening brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT), in-patient
detox and rehabilitation services, outpatient substance abuse counseling, medication-assisted
treatment and women’s residential services. It established an Outpatient
Substance Abuse program in the 1970s to address a growing population of
residents with substance abuse concerns. The program provided both drug-free
treatment as well as medication-assisted treatment (MAT) using methadone and
Suboxone to treat opioid addiction.
- In 2014 the Health
Department, in concert with the Lake County Opioid Initiative (LCOI), began an
initiative to save people who had overdosed on opioids. The Health Department’s actions included:
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Instructing
law enforcement officers on how to administer
naloxone, a drug that temporarily reverses the effect of an opioid to people who had overdosed, using a train the
trainer approach.
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Securing a donation of $1.4 million of auto-injectable naloxone
from Virginia-based kaléo, enough for police officers across Lake County to
carry the product in their squad cars. The first save occurred on Christmas day
of 2014 and since then there have been more than 90 lives saved. Officers of 39 local
police departments as well as the Sheriff’s Office now carry naloxone in their
cars.
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Providing
free naloxone training to patients and friends and family members of patients,
and to nurses in school settings.
In addition to the
increase of treatment slots for the MAT program, the Substance Abuse Program
(SAP) at 3004 Grand Avenue in Waukegan has been designated as a Federally Qualified
Health Center (FQHC) allowing the Health Department to bill for the services it
provides. This is critical to supporting the long term sustainability of the
program. The 3004 location will become the Health Department’s ninth health
center. Through the HRSA grant and the FQHC designation, the program will be
able to:
-
Provide
prescriptions for methadone, Suboxone and Vivitrol along with primary care,
substance abuse counseling and supportive services
- Increase
medical provider hours
-
Add
substance abuse counselors
-
Add
a licensed clinical social worker to act as a care manager
The Health Department
will continue to provide information and training to providers and members of law
enforcement as it increases its prevention efforts in response to this public
health crisis. Continuing to educate providers will be critical in curbing the
increase in addiction locally, regionally, and nationally. Countywide collaborations continue to help
address the immediate needs of residents and will continue to help shape the
agency’s response. The expansion of MAT
would not be possible without partnerships, especially the Health Department’s
collaboration with the Lake County Opioid Initiative, Nicasa, and others. To inquire about registering for the MAT
program, call: (847) 377-8120.
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