“We, as a community, have the opportunity to bring our ideas to the table and decide what we do with this money.” Opioid settlement task force to meet with public

The numbers are staggering. In 2021, 160 Alaskans died of drug overdoses. In 2021, Alaska experienced the largest percent increase in overdose deaths of any state in the United States, according to Alaska’s Opioid Response 2021-2022 Report to Legislature, which was prepared by the Alaska Department of Health.

Deaths by overdose have been increasing annually since 2018. Between 2020—2021, drug overdose death rates increased for most drug categories, resulting in a 74% increase in the overall drug overdose death rate.

The unprecedented overdose crisis was driven in large part to the opioid epidemic, much of which was spurred on by pharmaceutical manufacturers pushing opioid usage as an alternative to pain relief. As a result, many States entered into a lawsuit against drug makers and distributors of the legal drugs, which resulted in multi-billion dollar settlements.

Alaska will receive $21.5 million dollars, of which the Mat-Su Borough is set to receive a total of $2.3M over the next 16 years.

Part of the settlement money must be spent within 4 areas of opioid remediation: prevention, treatment, education, and harm reduction.

And while all of the areas are equally important, the Mat Su Borough is giving the community an opportunity to decide which areas they would like to see the settlement money spent.

To help get the word out, the Borough has set up a task force to assess the greatest needs are for opioid remediation in the Borough and will require public input to do that.

The task force is made up of prominent members of the recovery and health care industry, including Michael Carson, the chair of the Mat-Su Opioid Task Force and Vice President of My House in Wasilla; Karl Soderstrom, Founder and CEO of True North Recovery in Wasilla; James Savage, co-Chair of the Mat-Su Opioid Task Force and Director of Operations at Dylan’s Place/Day One, a detox and withdrawal management center in Wasilla; and Dawn Deaver, a Registered Nurse with the Mat-Su Public Health Center, and Vanessa Schachle, Student Advisory Board to the MSB School District.

The task force has been holding a series of public-participation meetings throughout the Mat-Su Borough, the last of which will convene at the Menard Center in Wasilla on Thursday at 6:00 p.m.

“I find that this committee, this opportunity is extremely unique in that we, as a community, have the opportunity to bring our ideas to the table and decide what we do with this money,” said Soderstrom at the beginning of the public participation meeting in Willow last week.

During the task force meeting in Willow, the committee heard from several participants who offered various suggestions.

Among those was Willow resident Linda Oxley, a non-credentialed Clinical Nurse Specialist, who o

“I do think in helping to address the long-term consequences of the opioid epidemic, I propose and support prevention,” she told members. She specifically addressed child and family development.

“To break the cycle of addiction, we need to find ways to impact the nuclear family of the very young, the baby and young child. By helping the parent role model that they can make changes, face situations, and recover. That they can make differences, improvements, and choices that they can then incorporate in as they evolve their young minds and developmental selves.”

Throughout the interactive meeting, other ideas included education in middle and high schools, and providing Naloxone, which is used in helping to reverse overdoses, and addressing needs within the prison systems to help avoid recidivism.

“More important than the money is the collaboration. It’s an opportunity for us to get fresh ideas on how to solve this problem,” said Soderstrom.

When the needs assessment is complete, the Borough will advertise the Assembly-approved list of needs and seek applications from qualifying Mat-Su organizations for potential grants. The Borough will receive and vet the applications and disperse the grants.

The final public meeting will be Thursday, May 25 at the Menard Center in Wasilla, from 6-8 p.m.

If you are not able to attend, the public has the option to complete a simple survey ranking those 4 areas at: www.surveymonkey.com/r/opioidassessment

The survey will be open until Friday, June 2nd.