July 18, 2023 Minutes

Weld Regional Opioid Council Meeting

Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment, Room 103
1555 North 17th Avenue, Greeley CO 80631
July 18, 2023 @ 9:00 am to 10:00 am

Council Members in Attendance:  David Angelo – Firestone Police Department; Eric Aakko – Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment; Kim Emil – Town of Windsor Government; Mike Zeller – Greeley Police Department; Scott James – Weld County Board of County Commissioners; Zo Stieber Hubbard – Town of Fort Lupton; Matt Turner – Weld County Sheriff’s Office; Rick Brandt – Evans Police Department; Tom Nissen – Ault Police Department; Mickey Pirraglia – Weld County Government (DA’s Office

Non-Council Members in Attendance:  Adria Schiel – Weld County Attorney’s Office; Holly Smith – Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment; Tanya Geiser – Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment; MJ Jorgensen – North Colorado Health Alliance; Mike Knee – Weld County Sheriff’s Office; Allyce Torres – North Range Behavioral Health; Erin Olson – Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment; Melanie Cyphers - Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment; Libby McEvoy - Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment; Dana Johnson – North Range Behavioral Health; Elizabeth Pike – North Colorado Health Network; Richard Zeigler – Windsor Police Department; Dayne Deherrera-Smith – Front Range Clinic; Brandi Drtina – North Colorado Health Alliance; Jennifer Mackender – Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention; Erika Greenberg – Centennial Area Health Education Center

Minutes

1. Review and Approve Minutes and Agenda
   • Recap of 04/18/2023 meeting minutes: Heidi Williams – Director of Opioid Response with the State discussed new additional funds coming in. She has resigned and is no longer with the Attorney General’s Office.
   • Zo Hubbard moved to approve the minutes of the 04/18/2023 meeting as well as the agenda for the 07/18/2023 meeting. Kim Emil seconded the motion. Minutes for 4/18/2023 meeting and agenda for 07/18/2023 meeting were approved with no changes.
2. Evaluation Metrics/Report Out of Progress from Partners
   • Weld County Health Department would like to track some of the outcomes and different processes from different activities outlined in the workplan. Erin Olson has reached out to a number of different partners that have received funding. Have received feedback on different measures that would be reasonable and sustainable to track. Will continue trying to touch base with partners to develop a system of measuring what is being done quarterly with the money and what activities have been completed.
   • Update from MJ with North Colorado Health Alliance – received funds to bring in 2 FTE in the work of getting people access to care. Have hired those two staff – supporting community needs and Weld County Jail and MAT roll out. Both staff have over 30 clients each, with about 80% of those being jail-based engagement. Also had funds to organize training opportunities for Weld County - have identified a few relevant trainings that will increase ability to provide equitable care. Will be bringing in community-based provider trainings as well. Received funds to support ongoing grants, funding, and research.
   • Mass spectrometers are in use. Drug task force has been trained on that. Agencies can utilize if they want to test something. There are two devices, one is used in the Greeley area and one that’s used in south county. Since March 24, 2023, the task force has conducted 30 tests. 25 of those tests were completed with the spectrometer in Greeley, the other 5 in South County. The following illegal substances have been tested using the device: fentanyl, MDMA, and methamphetamine. Of the 30 total tests performed, 25 were suspected for fentanyl. Weld County drug task for is the contact for South County. The machine is housed at the county substation – reach out to Scott Smith for details.
   • Budget does include $25,000 for other funding application requests and $19,400 for other admin costs (such as the Opioid conference). These are a few other things to think about in the funding amounts that the council budgeted.
   • Have a few requests from North Range, asking to shift some of their funds from staffing to purchase a caged car for secure transports. That was approximately $50,000. Also asking for point of contact testing for $10,000. North Range is licensed to provide secure transport and does have a few caged vehicles but would like another one for their co-responder program which is growing. Current vehicle is out of date. Point of care testing will help run labs and do blood testing instead of just urinalysis. This will hopefully help to prevent people from going to the emergency room.
   • Scott James motioned to approve the $50,000 of the caged car. Kim Emil seconded the motion.
   • Zo Hubbard motioned to approve the $10,000 for the point of care testing. Scott James seconded the motion.
   • Will be underspent this year. Spent the $136,000 on equipment. Will be spending approximately $9500/month for the MAT nurse for the Weld County jail and will be receiving the Narcan invoices. Recommend we look for opportunities to shift funding, so the pot just doesn’t continue to grow, and we not utilize the money effectively. Next year’s budget is due in September so the council will need to start thinking about these things rather quickly.
   • Opioid conference will be held in Montrose in August. Matt Turner will be attending. Reach out to Tanya if anyone is interested in attending.
3. SUD Activities:  Key Informant Interviews
   • Weld County Health Department has done a scope assessment for the work that Erin will be performing as the Substance Use Disorder Coordinator. Determining what activities are currently being done by partners within the community, barriers, challenges, etc. Performed partner key informant interviews as well as persons with lived experience interviews (see attached handout for key findings/themes).
     • With partner key information interviews, top theme for challenges faced working in opioid overdoes prevention or treatment in Weld County focused on stigma.
     • Talk about increasing visibility of opioid prevention and treatment work within the county as a potential program or strategy.
     • 8 different key partners included in these conversations.
     • Top themes from interviews with persons with lived experiences included access to resources for recovery and staying sober as well as early connection to resources when SUD is identified. Another top theme was the need for increased access to MAT.Question raised if any interviews were done in nursing homes – no information was gathered from nursing homes but did capture some info from some older adults.
4. Request for Funding (RFP)
   • Eric has been getting queries from people in community for access to opioid funds. First round funds were dispersed within the council participants. As we are getting additional resources, there are starting to be queries coming in from different entities in the community. Does the council want to issue a request for proposals (RFP) as an option to disperse the funds so if there are queries, organizations can submit an application and the council will review as another way of dispersing these funds. Would just need something basic: name of the organization, contact info, what would they do with the money and does it fall into the 3 buckets (prevention, education, treatment), how much are they requesting, will this be a continuous request, etc.?
     • Discussion of setting a certain amount of money aside for this process. Once that bucket is spent down, it’s gone until the next year/round.
     • Approval from council to support a RFP process. Can do a draft and tie some percentages to it.
     • Zo Hubbard motioned for a RFP application / outline to be drafted and sent out to the voting members for review. Second by Scott James. Draft will be sent out and council will meet on September 12th to discuss.
5. Adjourn
   • Introduction to Jason Chessher – new WCDPHE Executive Director. Been at the Health Department 5 months.
   • Motion by Scott James to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by Kim Emil. Meeting adjourned at 9:46

Next Meeting: Tuesday, September 12, 2023 at 9:00am at the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment and available virtually through Microsoft Teams.