Settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors are across the country to help fight the opioid epidemic. Officials from across New Mexico recently gathered in Santa Fe to discuss plans for their share of hundreds of millions of dollars with state lawmakers.
Cities and counties are joining forces in hopes of making a bigger impact together than they could alone.
New Mexico is receiving about or so, with just over half going to local governments.
Albuquerque and Bernalillo County announced to share their settlement funds earlier this year. And down south, the City of Las Cruces and Do帽a Ana County are also teaming up.
But the state鈥檚 largest cities and counties aren鈥檛 alone.
Shauna Hartley, a social worker who鈥檚 been on the frontlines of the opioid crisis, is heading up the , a coalition of seven rural New Mexico counties.
鈥淲hen you have a big challenge, when you have a big problem, you don't want to take that on by yourself,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou want to do that with a group of people, a group of counties that share the same challenges that you do.鈥�
Catron, Cibola, Guadalupe, Hidalgo, Sierra, Socorro and Valencia counties.
What the groups plan to do with the funds is still being decided. Officials are setting priorities based on where the gaps are and what they鈥檙e hearing from their communities.
Mostly that boils down to funding medically assisted treatment, like suboxone or methadone programs, and expand its presence by providing more wrap-around services to support people holistically, and by expanding prevention efforts like education campaigns.
Earlier on in the process stakeholders suggested focusing on more effective approaches at keeping people alive, like where people can use drugs under medical supervision with clean supplies, and which . But none of the draft plans include them as priorities.
Hartley said there are plenty of changes she would like to make, like allowing pharmacies to actually dispense methadone, especially in rural areas.
鈥淚t's very challenging to have an actual standalone methadone program in a rural area because of the volume,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou're not going to have a bulk of people coming to a methadone clinic every day.鈥�
Hartley also said providers could benefit from working together directly
鈥淥ne of the things that came up is that prevention and treatment providers oftentimes stand on two sides,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey either promote prevention or they either promote treatment, and unfortunately, they don't work very collaboratively together.鈥�
She recommends they set up systems to share data so their work combating the epidemic is better aligned.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
