GREENFIELD –– After a settlement with CVS and Walgreens, the Attorney General’s office had a wealth of resources to funnel back into communities statewide to fight the opioid epidemic.
Although Franklin County would receive $20,000 over two years — 3 percent of the total pie of $700,000 — it played a large role in deciding how the attorney general would recommend how groups can use the money.
“They called us up and we have this money, ‘We want to do something with primary prevention. We know Franklin County is ahead. What are you doing and what’s working?’” said Kat Allen of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments.
The choice was to focus on prevention at the youth level, and in Franklin County that meant continuing to educate middle schoolers about not only the potential perils of drugs and alcohol but about how to build social and emotional skills to best prepare students.
“We will never get control of this epidemic until prevention becomes a priority,” Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. “With these grants, we will partner with schools and community organizations to empower young people and protect the next generation from falling victim to this public health crisis. But, these grants are only a start, we must continue to address this unmet need.”
The $20,000 grant to the FRCOG will help to fund the LifeSkills program that is currently underway in middle schools across the county. The program is evidence-based and helps to lower drug and alcohol abuse by developing social and emotional skills in students to combat certain situations they may face.
The money will be used to help host training for the LifeSkills program and to help provide technical assistance, Allen said.
Allen, who is the Coalition Coordinator of Communities that Care said the funding will help to bolster the program in its first year, allowing for an expansion into late elementary school years and early high school years where possible.
“We’re trying to get ahead of the problem,” Allen said, noting data from the program to show reductions in substance and alcohol use — though it will take longer for the data to reflect a decrease in the death rate.
Allen said the schools are doing a good job of trying to fight the opioid epidemic, but they need to be given the resources to be able to give their best punch.
“This program is trying to get ahead of it. Just as we know we can’t arrest our way out of the drug problem, we can’t treat our way out of the drug problem,” she said, “we have to start working with the middle school students because that’s when they start to experiment.”
“The earlier one delays first use, it decreases the chances of battling a life-long addiction,” said Opioid Task Force Coordinator Debra McLaughlin. “LifeSkills is evidence-based and we applaud the Communities That Care Coalition’s commitment to prevention, which is one of the four key strategies guiding the Opioid Task Force’s work.”