PHOTO: Courtesy of WLUK
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) –Brown County leaders say their efforts to combat the opioid and fentanyl epidemic are making a difference.
Officials held a news conference Thursday — the second in a three-part series — to provide an update on the county’s ongoing campaign to create awareness about the dangers of these drugs and provide resources for recovery.
“I think it’s fair to say that there’s a good chance that every one of us in our community has experienced or knows somebody who has been, unfortunately, a victim of either a fentanyl overdose or an opiate addiction,” said Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach.
Two years ago, Brown County leaders saw an alarming rate of opiate overdoses and deaths, leading to their declaration of fentanyl as a public health crisis. Since then, various county departments and leaders have implemented a program to “bend the curve.”
Streckenbach said the data is showing trends are moving in the right direction.
Right now, we’re 50% year-over-year down, in terms of the total numbers, so that’s a positive sign that we’re making improvements, that our small piece of the puzzle is perhaps working.
Much of the campaign has centered around awareness. Streckenbach said the county has made more than four million impressions using things like mailers, billboards and TV advertisements during Green Bay Packers games.
“We made an effort to make sure that the families, the homes, got the message that if you’re not talking about fentanyl in your home, you need to be — because it’s that one pill that could kill. We need, as a community, to rise up and do something about it,” Streckenbach explained.
Another big piece of the program is recovery and rehabilitation. County officials have expanded offerings for substance abuse and mental health needs, as well as detoxification services and access to sober living environments.
Additionally, officials have tackled prevention by making Narcan and medication lock boxes available and by hosting regular drug takeback events.
Brown County received funding to support their campaign from Wisconsin’s share of a settlement stemming from a multistate lawsuit accusing drug manufacturers and distributors of contributing to the nation’s opioid crisis.
Wisconsin received about $324.3 million, with 30% going to the state and 70% going to county governments.
County leaders say that although these statistics are reassuring, there is still a great deal of work to do to help address the opioid and fentanyl epidemic in the community.
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