Rehab in Albuquerque, New Mexico

When and how did the Bernalillo County Opioid Accountability Initiative begin?

The planning began in 2012 in response to the rising number of overdose deaths from both heroin and prescription opioids in the county. We’re in one of the states that has one of the higher amounts of opioid deaths. Our state averages have been consistently twice the national average of drug deaths, and our county is above average for the state. We organized what we called summit meetings to mobilize the community. One was in 2013, and the next one was in 2015.

What was the purpose of the summit meetings?

Both summits served to get those interested in this subject involved and working together. It was a matter of people working together so the problem could really be addressed on a public health scale. Most people were active and doing good things, but nothing was being done at a scale that was really attempting to pull back the problem in terms of its overall impact.

How has the initiative tried to reduce the number of opioid overdoses?

In the last year, we got funding from the federal government for Narcan distribution and education of physicians. We’ve been involved in strengthening an excellent prescription drug monitoring program for the state.

What other programs have been developed to prevent substance abuse?

The other sectors in our prevention pillar involved trying to advocate on behalf of early childhood development programs, newborn home visiting for high-risk families, school health programs and so forth. Also in prevention, we’re now moving into direct education of physicians.

What efforts have you made to reduce recidivism and relapse rates?

How has treatment changed in Bernalillo County in recent years?

We’re getting demonstrably more people providing medication-assisted treatment. We’re seeing the expansion of methadone clinics, and their enrollments have gone up. Our limiting factors are capacities in which to put people for long-term maintenance treatment. … Part of that is that Medicaid doesn’t cover it. We’re trying to work with Medicaid.

In what other ways is the county helping people in recovery?

Two years ago, our county imposed what, in effect, is a sales tax to raise money for expanding behavioral health services. There’s like $17 million a year. It’s going to early childhood support programs. It’s going to supportive housing for people with mental health issues and addictions. These programs will take a while, but these things are going to have an impact on the problem.