PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Health & Human Services is planning to create an Opiate Gaps Report.
The Clallam County Board of Commissioners learned about it during their Monday work session because the department is requesting $25,000 in opioid settlement funds to create the report, which will “provide the Board of Health (BOH), Behavioral Health Advisory Board, and community partners with a clear and comprehensive analysis of local overdose trends, available prevention and treatment resources, and alignment with state-approved opioid settlement uses,” according to the agenda memo.
Clallam County Health & Human Services Epidemiologist Mondana Madjdi told the commissioners about the report.
“The report will serve as both a decision-making tool for targeted funding allocations and a baseline framework for measuring progress over time,” she said.
The basic components, according to the department’s presentation, include:
• A 10-year retrospective of drug overdose data and statistics for Clallam County, doting from the implementation of the Overdose Notifiable Condition rule in 2015;
• Development, implementation and analysis of a community partner survey, designed to collect data on all available types of substance use intervention and treatment by service area;
• A comprehensive cross-reference to all categories and subcategories outlined in the opioid settlement-approved uses list from DOH alongside the community partner survey data and relevant vital statistics; and
• A broad analysis of the types of activities planned or underway using settlement dollars in counties with similar populations and demographics.
The timeline estimate to create the report is 12 to 16 weeks, Madjdi said.
“The goal would be to look at counties with similar population and similar population breakdowns as well as similar overdose rates,” she said.
Another goal would be to create a public-facing section for the Health & Human Services website that would provide a living map as a quick reference for people.
Commissioners are set to vote on the department’s $25,000 request during their regular session Sept. 30.
In other business, commissioners heard a resolution requesting approval of the Clallam County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan Update.
“Hazard mitigation is extremely important because we have a lot of natural hazards in our county. We also have a lot of human-caused hazards,” special projects manager Diane Harvey said. “This planning is to identify all of the natural hazards and try to figure out how we can mitigate, how we can prepare the public for disasters. And at the same time, trying to come up with projects that the county and stakeholders can do to reduce the risk.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency found July 14 that the plan “meets all applicable FEMA mitigation planning requirements. An adoption resolution by a plan participant is needed for FEMA plan approval,” according to the agenda memo.
“If you read the introduction section and then look at the mitigation projects, I think that gives you the idea of what we’re trying to do here,” Harvey said. “I believe that this plan is good enough for 10 years with a little bit of tweaking to satisfy FEMA rules.”
The plan has more than 1,900 pages and can be found at www.clallamcountywa.gov/1822/Hazard-Mitigation-Plan-Update.
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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
