ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Drug Endangered Family Task Force is soliciting proposals from local organizations interested in curbing the county’s opioid epidemic using funds from a national settlement.
Richmond County is slated to receive $4.8 million over an 18-year period as part of the opioid settlement. As of March, the county had been allotted $592,992, with another payment scheduled for this summer and subsequent funds distributed annually.
The Richmond County Board of Commissioners has put DEFT in charge of the funds, however final dispersal is up to the board. Commissioners OKed the request for proposals earlier this month.
Commissioner Andy Grooms stated earlier in the year that he would not support any program that dealt with giving out needles.
(Disclosure: This writer is a media representative on the task force.)
DEFT will be allocating around $150,000, with a $50,000 cap on individual grants. There is also a requirement of a 10% local match on each grant.
The list of organizations eligible for the grants include local governments, public and private schools, nonprofit agencies, for-profit providers and housing authorities.
According to the application, programs or services should target opioid or substance abuse addiction, treatment and recovery support, and drug intervention.
Approved strategies include:
- Evidence-based addiction treatment
- Recovery support services
- Recovery housing support
- Employment-related services
- Early intervention
- Naloxone distribution
- Post-overdose response team
- Criminal justice diversion programs
- Addiction treatment for incarcerated individuals
- Re-entry programs
The application also includes boxes for a program description and how many people are expected to be served.
Former county health director Dr. Tommy Jarrell is serving as the DEFT coordinator.
For more information on the application, visit richmondnc.com/644/Opioid-Settlement-Funds
An April report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner showed that Richmond County had the third-highest fentanyl-related death rate of all 100 North Carolina counties — exceeded only by Jones and Swain counties, which both have populations less than half of Richmond’s — in 2022.
Click here to read that story.
According to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Opioid and Substance Use Action Plan Data Dashboard, Richmond County had both the second-highest drug overdose death rate — more than twice the state average — and overdose emergency department visits in 2021, behind nearby Robeson County.
(Note: Overdose death rates are per a population of 100,000 and include all drugs and intents, purposeful or accidental. According to the dashboard, more than 90% of overdose deaths are unintentional.)
From 2016-2019, Richmond County’s overdose death rate was below that of the state. However, the rate skyrocketed from 15.6 in 2019 to 60.2 in 2020, then to 84.8 in 2021.
The actual number of overdose deaths in 2021 was 38. Robeson County had 127 for a rate of 97.2.
Compared to counties with similar populations, Richmond had more than twice the number of deaths as Beaufort County, with Stokes coming in second with 33.
