September 12, 2023 Minutes

Weld Regional Opioid Council Meeting

Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment, Room 103
1555 North 17th Avenue, Greeley CO 80631
September 12, 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; Zo Hubbard – Town of Fort Lupton; Rick Brandt – Evans Police Department; Tom Nissen – Ault Police Department; Scott Moser – Town of Eaton; Jamie Ulrich – Weld County Department of Human Services

Non-Council Members in Attendance:  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; Erin Olson – Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment; Melanie Cyphers - 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; Dayna Deherrera-Smith – Front Range Clinic; Brandi Drtina – North Colorado Health Alliance; Jenny Wallace – North Range Behavioral Health; Ashley Weesner – City of Greeley; Jennifer Mackender – Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention; Joanna Martinson – City of Greeley

Minutes

1. Review and Approve Minutes and Agenda
   • Zo Hubbard motioned to approve the minutes of the 07/18/2023 meeting as well as the agenda for the 09/12/2023 meeting. Scott Moser seconded the motion. Minutes for 7/18/2023 meeting and agenda for 09/12/2023 meeting were approved with no changes.
2. Why Evaluation Matters
   • Discussion of why evaluation matters and review of slide. Scope assessment comes from partner input, people with lived experiences, and data from multiple sources including CDHPE vital records, CDPHE hospitalizations, syndromic surveillance, ODMAP, Health Kids Colorado Survey, and special coroner data requests. With all this data, we can determine key areas or gaps for focus in hopes of seeing opioid deaths go down.
     • Per request for links that might be accessible to see what is trending in South County, Eric will look into seeing if a screenshot of ODMAP can be provided to the council. Libby with the Weld County Health Department will also be presenting a lot more data at the October meeting.
3. Recap of Opioid Conference
   • Several people were there. Congratulations to everyone, as a region we seem to be a little ahead of the curve (i.e., we’ve already put money out, will be releasing an RFP soon, etc.). Takeaways from people who attended:
     • Eric: Amazed at how much of the illegal drug market is laced with fentanyl. Cocaine, heroin, meth, MDMA, Percocet, Oxy, Xanax, Adderall – all can be laced with fentanyl. As little as 2mg can be fatal. 6 out of 10 street drugs have fentanyl.
     • Erin: Learned how easily accessible it is for youth to find street drugs on social media using emojis. Enjoyed hearing panelists that have living experience.
     • MJ: Enjoyed hearing about what statewide things are happening and thinking about redefining some of the ways we offer it here. Looking at ways in which we engage in primary upstream prevention. Saw some creative solutions in smaller communities on treatment side of things that we can embed in our models. Expanding on some of the work that’s already happening. A lot of statewide recognition of what is happening in our region.
     • Tanya: Was interesting to hear that we need to stop calling it overdose, and instead call it poisoning. Piggyback on amazement of the ease of ability for people to get these drugs. One of our audiences for education we should be marketing to is parents and potentially grandparents. From fiscal perspective, we are ahead of the curve for getting the money out. We are going to get another $2 million for a total of over $3 million. Will have a challenge spending that, but we should be spending it as we get it, so it does not become unmanageable. Try to avoid funding what we’ve always funded/what we’ve always done. Need to look at more innovation. Should also not be super small pots of money.
     • Dayna: Still a lot of work to be done on educating folks on treatment. Increase awareness of outpatient treatment and accessibility. Information around partnering with criminal justice, work with co responder programs, and redirecting needs to treatment providers.
     • Jennifer Mackender: There was a good portion on the “youth” side of things and the messaging. The Connect Effect campaign focuses on middle and high school youth and their parents and trusted adults and tips for talking with teens, what an opioid dose might look like, and how important those conversations are. Will send campaign link to everyone. Reminder that Jennifer is a resource for the council and can assist in creating relationships and talking about what is going on in different areas and providing examples of other things that are going around in the state. Regional collaboration is important - nothin stops at county borders.
4. Budget Review
   • Council received $1.258 million in funding for 2023 which we won’t come close to spending since we had a late start. We may hit $750,000. We will be receiving $2.12 million for 2024. If we factor in the $750,000, this will give us about $2.6 million for the rest of 2023 and 2024. Budget was originally due September 15th, but we’ve been given an extension to November 15th.
     • To date we have spent about $136,000 for the 2 pieces of equipment for the Weld drug task force. We should expect only about half of the Sheriff’s Office budget to be spent. Still have $25,000 for funding application requests which has not really marketed or received. Few admin expenditures – mainly for the conference. $20,000 prevention campaign for media/geotargeting that we have not done.
     • As a council this is an opportunity to think big and go deep with the $2.6 million we have.
5. Request for Proposal (RFP) Review
   • Review of RFP that was drafted. Thinking of asking it to be returned by Friday, October 11th. Funding would be January 1 – December 31, 2024. The RFP asks for organization information, total funding amount requested, confirmation that the request falls within the treatment, recovery, and prevention/education buckets, a brief description of what the funds will support, information regarding outcomes and accountability, and how this will partner with Weld County.
     • We don’t necessarily want to have to manage a lot of small pots of money, as that’s a lot of busy work.
     • RFP will be for brand new projects for 2024 (people not necessarily on the council).
     • Putting out a news release could be a catalyst for everyone to take to get the information out there about the RFP, what we’ve been doing as a council, and what we continue to work on. Eric will draft a news release and send it out to the council for approval.
     • Motion made by Zo Hubbard to start RFP at minimum request amount of $30,000 with no cap. Motion was seconded by Kim Emil. All voting members in support.
     • Motion by Kim Emil to set up a pot for mini grant funding for school driven requests. Motion seconded by Zo Hubbard. All voting members in support. Motion by Zo Hubbard for mini grant funding for schools’ allowance to be $30,000. Motion seconded by Scott Moser. All voting members in support.
     • Will send out RFP to voting members and do decision making by email.
6. Adjourn
   • Motion by Zo Hubbard to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by Kim Emil. Meeting adjourned at 10:05am.

Next Meeting:  Tuesday, October 17, 2023 at 9:00am at the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment and available virtually through Microsoft Teams.