Henderson County receives $300K from Dogwood Health Trust to fight opioid crisis

The Historic Henderson County Courthouse on Thursday, April 15, 2021.

Henderson County has accepted $300,000 in funding from the Dogwood Health Trust to help fight and further examine the local opioid epidemic.

The Board of Commissioners approved the grant agreement on Monday. The money will go toward planning objectives for opioid litigation settlement funds, identifying gaps in services within the community, and providing training.

Chair Bill Lapsley said the $300,000 is in addition to the opioid settlement funds the county will receive, adding that those funds are forthcoming.

The work with the Dogwood grant will be completed in conjunction with the Henderson County Department of Public Health, the Hope Coalition, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office, and Emergency Medical Services.

The assessments will draw data from area hospitals, first responders, law enforcement, detention facilities, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Social Services, and the Child Advocacy Center, according to the grant application.

The Dogwood Health Trust has expressed its desire to distribute funds prior to the end of the 2021 calendar year.

Lapsley announced Monday that the county is re-establishing its task force to examine substance misuse in Henderson County. The group will meet within the next week or so, he said. The plan is for the task force to come to commissioners with ideas on how to best spend the opioid settlement funding.

Background on opioid settlement funding

Money from the opioid settlement has been on the Board of Commissioners’ radar for quite some time.

After years of negotiations, two proposed nationwide settlement agreements have been reached that would resolve all opioid litigation brought by state and local governments against the three largest drug distributors, according to information on the North Carolina Association for County Commissioners’ website.

The proposed settlements require that the distributors and J&J pay $26 billion over 18 years, with approximately $22.7 billion available to state and local governments to address the opioid epidemic.

The State of North Carolina has already approved and signed the settlements, making North Carolina local governments eligible to participate.

North Carolina stands to receive approximately $750 million through these settlements if all 100 counties and all municipalities with a population over 10,000 participate. These funds will be available starting in 2022 to support treatment, recovery, harm reduction, and other life-saving programs and services, according to NCACC.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Henderson County NC receives funding to fight local opioid epidemic