Substance Use

From 2012-2016 the rate of deaths from all opioids in Mason County was higher than the state of Washington (14.7 and 9.3 per 100,000, respectively). Mason County’s opioid response is led by the Public Health Division, in collaboration with various community partners. This work is funded by four main grant sources. Starting in March of 2017, Mason County received the Prescription Drug Overdose (PDO) grant from the Washington State Department of Health. Then in October of 2017, the Bureau of Justice Assistance awarded Mason County the ‘Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program’ (COAP) grant.

 

With the funding from both grants mentioned above, and through our collaboration with our partners, we are working on initiating a system-wide change that creates a no-wrong-door approach to opioid use disorder treatment for all those affected, including friends and family. Some goals of the program are to promote education and prevention methods, and increase access to resources like naloxone, prescription drug take-back, and medicated assisted treatment, while decreasing rates of drug-related incarcerations, and rates of opioid related deaths. Finally, through our work, we hope to eliminate deaths due to opioid use in Mason County.

For the most up-to-date information on events surrounding Mason County’s Opioid Response please follow us on social media:

Overdose Follow-up Interventions Webinar (February 22, 2018)

Community Discusses Opioid Epidemic (September 22, 2016)