CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County Board of Health received $2.8 million from the CDC to crack down on the opioid crisis in the county.
Becky Karns is the program supervisor for the Cuyahoga County Board of Health; she said the money was broken up and given as grants to 13 different partners that focus on getting people the treatment they need to recover.
“These programs are also focused on understanding retention and care, how we can expand to be able to work with different populations and different target populations," said Karns. "We really look at our data and try to understand if the numbers that we're seeing in overdose deaths are reaching those populations, and then how can we maybe pivot our activities to be able to better reach populations."
Karns said there is an increase in fatal overdoses in the African American and Hispanic communities.
“So, we are trying to make sure that we are coordinating our work and intentionally reaching out to different populations and agencies in those areas,” said Karns.
The Cleveland Health Department is helping in that fight, they received a $25,600 grant from the county for their Office of Mental Health and Addiction recovery services that help families who struggle from addiction.
Lita Wills is the Commissioner of Health, Equity and Social Justice at the Health Department. She said the grant will be used to partner with city recreation centers to host addiction workshops, provide screenings to assess for depression or substance abuse and educate residents on treatment options.
“What we're trying to prevent here is deaths by overdose, and the more that we can educate people that it's out there and how dangerous it is, we're hoping to be able to head some of that off," said Wills.
In order to expand their impact, the department is also working to partner with Metro Health Hospital and Risk Management to provide Naloxone at Cleveland City Hall and Recreation centers in the county.
“We see it across all ages, and our feeling behind wanting to make sure that we had Naloxone or Narcan available in city buildings is to make sure that it's in within the city's purview,“ said Wills.
The grant will also provide bystander training to Cleveland City Hall staff and rec center staff on how to use the overdose reversal drug.
Wills said they will begin placing the boxes of Naloxone in city-owned buildings in a few weeks.
“The great thing about putting this medication in the recreation centers is that there is one in almost every neighborhood,” said Wills.
According to the Cleveland Department of Health, there were 73 fewer fatal overdoses in 2023 with the total being 261. 68% of the overdose deaths were due to opioid use involving fentanyl.
