Massachusetts cities and towns are seeking advice from the public on how to spend their $400 million dollar portion of the national opioid settlement.
At the state’s request, they are trying to reach out to people directly affected by addiction.
As part of a national class action lawsuit, drug companies and pharmacies had to pay about $50 billion dollars across the country, with $1 billion going to Massachusetts over 18 years.
Sixty percent of the money goes to the state to distribute, and 40 percent to cities and towns directly.
At a Holyoke public forum Tuesday, July 15, city administrator Alicia Zoeller said Holyoke is forming an advisory committee to help spend the more than $1 million dollars it had already received – and more than $2 million still to come.
“We want folks who are actively using. We want folks who are in recovery. We want folks who are grieving,” Zoeller said. “We want folks who may find themselves in a life situation that is opioid-related, [such as] a grandparent raising a grandchild.”
People attending the forum said they want more housing, harm reduction — and transparency in the process.
One woman, who did not give her name, said she hopes there won’t be too many restrictions over who can serve as an advisor.
“I'm a person who [has] lived experience," she said. "Service is what we do to our community. So I would encourage you not to underestimate anybody here that wants to serve on this committee.”
Maria Quinn of the Holyoke Health Center emphasized the importance of groups working in collaboration, rather than competing for the funding.
“We're all working for the same community,” Quinn said. “So really meeting together in some capacity, not feeling like it is really one against the other.”
Montague public health director Ryan Paxton said his office has had trouble getting enough people with addiction experience to attend the town’s focus groups, so they are trying new methods to bring people in.
“Outreach can be difficult,” he said. “We're asking people to take time from their day to come to a meeting in person. People might not always be comfortable speaking about their experiences."
Obviously Quinn said "there's a lot of stigma surrounding substance use as a whole.”
Montague will receive just over $100,000 in opioid money total — with $34,000 already in. Given the funding, Quinn said they’ll have to be creative with programs.
“You could try to spend a larger sum of the money on an intervention that hopefully has a long lasting impact,” Paxton said. “You could try to fund a low cost intervention that is able to be sustained over the course of the 18 year period.”
Paxton said the city has so far received proposals to fund pregnancy doulas, a theater group to help at-risk youth, and recovery coaches.
The municipal organization Hampshire Hope, based at the Northampton Health Department, also plans to double down on outreach to people directly affected by opioid addiction.
Hampshire Hope director Taylor McAndrew said the organization sent out a survey to Hampshire County residents for advice on spending the settlement funds.
While she said they were happy with the number of responses – almost 500 - most seemed to be professionals in the field.
“We were not satisfied with the engagement of people who might still be using opioids or might be in recovery themselves — those with the most direct effect from the reason why we're getting these opioid settlement funds," McAndrew said
Out of the responses that did come in, McAndrew said many people want more focus on harm reduction, including access to the overdose reversal drug Naloxone, as well as wound care and affordable housing for people dealing with addiction.
