The Cleveland Department of Public Health and Cuyahoga County Board of Health are partnering up for the first time in recent years to provide services to prevent opioid overdose deaths.
On Tuesday, during a Cleveland City Council Health and Human Services Committee meeting, the city’s health department requested permission to accept the first of three annual $25,600 grants from the county. The money will be used to expand the city health department’s Office of Mental Health and Addiction Recovery services for individuals and families who struggle with addiction and for youth-focused addiction-prevent efforts.
The city will use the money for the following over the next three years:
- Provide screenings or questionnaire services to assess for depression or substance use disorders at community clinics
- Partner with city recreation centers to host workshops for families affected by addiction
- Provide bystander training to Cleveland City Hall staff and rec center staff
- Connect residents to education, treatment options and resources at community events
Lita Wills, director of the city health department’s Health Equity Social Justice division, said the city health department also is looking to partner with the city’s Office of Emergency Management and MetroHealth System Office of Opioid Safety to get boxes of naloxone, a medication used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, installed at Cleveland City Hall and recreation centers. The health department would then provide training to city staff.
Wills said the county’s three-year grant cycle is restarting and the county health board asked the city to combine resources to address the opioid epidemic in Northeast Ohio.
From 2019 through 2022, Cuyahoga County Board of Health received $13.2 million from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent opioid‐related overdose deaths. The money was used to create a county dashboard to monitor the number of fatal and nonfatal overdoses as well as to create prevention programs.
Last year, Cleveland and Cuyahoga County health officials launched an effort to make free naloxone more widely available.
The effort began with the installation of five public vending machines filled with naloxone at medical clinics across Cleveland. Health officials said at the time that making the naloxone publicly available any time of day was an innovative way to decrease drug deaths in Northeast Ohio.
Last spring, the MetroHealth Office of Opioid Safety, one of the groups involved in this effort, expanded the push by installing clear, plastic boxes filled with naloxone and other supplies at several properties operated by the Cuyahoga County Metropolitan Housing Authority.
