Bullhook to receive grant to fight opioid abuse

Havre’s Bullhook Community Center will hire more workers and get added resources to fight opioid use disorders thanks to a grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.

In a press release issued by HRSA last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced funding of $758,334 to support two Montana health centers. Bullhook CEO Cindy Smith said Bullhook gets half of that recurring grant. Bighorn Valley Health Center gets the other half.

The grant is part of a national campaign meant to address the prescription opioid and heroin crisis, the press release says.

Although heroin is not as prevalent in Havre as it is in other parts of the country, illegal opioid use is a problem in Hill County, Smith said.

Opioids are prescription medications legally prescribed to reduce chronic pain. They are drugs that produce morphine-like effects. Common opioids are synthetic and semisynthetic drugs like hydrocodone, oxycodone and fentanyl.

The Havre Daily News has reported several cases that are currently flowing through the veins of the county court system that include the use of or distribution of opioids. One common opioid that has consistently popped up in charging documents, one that alleged distributors sell often is OxyContin.

Smith said the resources from the grant will be used to combat the effects of opioid abuse.

“What we’re trying to do is expand what we’re currently doing in substance abuse services, trying to get more screening done at an early age to catch people faster and talk about the risks, increase the number of providers in Hill County that use some sort of medication assistance treatment and train more people throughout the state on medication assistance treatment,” she said.

Smith said Bullhook will hire more addictions counselors, add another licensed addiction counselor, put a counselor in the middle schooland get physicians to train people to help fight opioid abuse.

Havre High School brought on two licensed addiction counselors in December.

Opioid use and illegal distribution is not a regional trend.

According to a July 2014 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people in the U.S. consume opioid pain relievers at a rate per capita twice that of the second ranking nation, Canada. That same report says that in 2012, prescribers wrote 82.5 opioid pain reliever prescriptions per 100 persons in the United States.

No other country comes close to the amount of opioids Americans consume, CDC said.

The report says overprescribing has helped contribute to “adverse health outcomes,” such as fatal overdoses. People die because there are too many opioids out there, the report said.

A 2015 press release, also issued by Burwell, says, “Deaths from drug overdose have risen steadily over the past two decades and currently outnumber deaths from car accidents in the United States.”

In the more recent press release, the HHS says that the number of unintentional overdose deaths from prescription pain medications has nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2013.

This initiative to take on the opioid crises will focus on three areas: improving opioid prescribing practices, increasing the use of naloxone — a medication used to block the effects of opioids — and increasing access to medication-assisted treatment.