Currituck adopts 4-pronged plan for fighting opioid abuse

CURRITUCK — Currituck will hire a full-time treatment services coordinator and appoint a post-overdose response team as part of its overall strategy for combating opioid abuse in the county.

The Board of Commissioners approved a four-pronged plan on Monday to address opioid abuse that spends $160,000 in national opioid settlement monies provided by the state, according to a county press release.

The biggest chunk of those funds — $100,000 — will go toward hiring a full-time program coordinator who will “develop treatment services programs and coordinate efforts to reduce opioid use disorder” in the county, the release states. The coordinator, who may be a county employee or a health department employee, will also apply for grants, offer education about opioid disorder in the schools, and work with medical providers to improve post-overdose response, the release said.

Currituck’s anti-opioid abuse strategy also includes using $20,000 to appoint a “peer support specialist.” According to the release, the specialist will “provide support and assistance to those experiencing “mental health and/or substance abuse challenges” and will be someone who has “lived through similar experiences in the past.”

According to the release, the peer support specialist will “work to connect incarcerated individuals with resources, coordinate referrals from social services (agencies), maintain connections with treatment facilities, and create a local database of resources for local citizens.”

The post-overdose response team that Currituck plans to form will partner with the county’s Fire-Emergency Medical Services Department to follow up with persons who have overdosed and connect them with resources that can help them address their addiction. The team will also use $20,000 of the opioid settlement funding.

Currituck’s fourth strategy will be distributing the overdose-reversal drug naxolone, better known by its brand-name Narcan, to agencies like Fire-Emergency Services and the Currituck Sheriff’s Office that currently use it when responding to overdose cases. This strategy will spend the remaining $20,000 in opioid settlement funding, the county said.

According to the release, Currituck is also establishing an opioid advisory board to make recommendations to the Board of Commissioners about how future opioid settlement funds will be used. That board will hold its first meeting on Oct. 10.

Currituck said the county must spend the $160,000 in opioid settlement funding before June 30, 2025.