This year’s International Overdose Awareness Day theme is "25 Years On. Still Needed.”
August 31st is the 25th anniversary of this global awareness campaign. The day is meant to honor the thousands of people who have died from overdose while also recognizing the grief of families and communities and supporting those affected by both substance use and recovery.
“Past criminalization has not worked. Now we utilize the public health-based model that recognizes that substance use disorder and opioid use disorder are health conditions,” said Sean Young-Stephens, program coordinator with with Washington County Public Health and Environment.
In Minnesota in Washington County, the approach to overdose and stemming the substance use crisis is changing. It aims to save lives by ending the historic history of stigmatization associated with drug use.
“That means we show up with compassion and support and tools that work and save live, like evidence based treatment and harm reduction,” Young-Stephens added.
Major pharmaceutical companies that had a role in the over-prescription of pain medications that fueled the opioid crisis starting in the 1990s settled lawsuits and created a fund with $50 billion in 2022. That nationwide settlement money created payments to many local governments across the US, including Washington County.
“The money we receive locally is used to support people and address the opioid crisis,” said Young-Stephens, who coordinates Washington County’s opioid settlement funding. “We’ve funded a range of organizations and strategies including those that provide harm reduction resources and increase access to Naloxone, the overdose reversal medication.”
In 2024, Washington County created its Opioid Settlement Council to provide leadership and guidance on its opioid settlement spending. The Opioid Settlement Council, composed of community members, professional experts, and people with lived experience, has flexibility on how to best use the money to stem the opioid crisis locally.
Alicia House, Co-CEO of RS EDEN, who has been a Washington County Opioid Settlement Advisory Council member for two years, sees the impact of the collaboration at the grassroots level.
“A lot of counties are holding the money without community input. Washington County is putting it in the hands of those doing the work. That shows it is possible to do this together, hand-in-hand,” House said.
Washington County’s opioid settlement funding oversight work has been recognized with several national awards for its effectiveness.
“It’s a huge honor,” Young-Stephens said. “The recognition means other counties around the country can look to Washington County to model their process. It’s a way for us to expand our work to influence other jurisdictions across the country.”
Washington County has received both the Promising Practice Award presented by the, National Association of County and City Health Officials as well as the Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties. In addition, it also earned the Award for Excellence in the Application of the Opioid Litigation Principles presented by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“Washington County has been a shining light and an example of how a county can support community in this work,” added House.
