Dallas County is preparing to use the millions of dollars it’s set to receive from settlements with opioid manufacturers and pharmacies. Among the first of the county’s expenditures is a $2 million expansion of Parkland Health’s program to connect people coming out of jail with medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for their addiction.
Parkland would use about $1.5 million for personnel staff and another half million for program costs, according to a briefing on the MAT program.
The goal is to screen an additional 200 people released from the Dallas County Jail for medication assisted treatment. Fifty people will get connected to “internal resources or community partners.”
Assistant County Administrator Charles Reed told commissioners the program came out of a previous desire from elected officials to expand medication-assisted treatment for people leaving jail.
“This program specifically was for the inmates in our jail that are experiencing opioid use disorder and making sure that when they get out, they have the proper warm handoff into the Parkland MAT services in the community — that are already there,” Reed said.
Commissioners authorized the agreement at a meeting on Tuesday, although one, John Wiley Price, wanted to know if community partners had the bandwidth to handle a ramped-up jail release program.
“You’re talking about $1.5 million for staff [to help] 200 people. What do you hand them off to?” Price asked county staff. “What is the bandwidth in the community? Where is it now?”
“We’ll figure out what their capacity is,” said County Administrator Darryl Martin.
Texas is estimated to receive about $1.6 billion in opioid settlement money. A portion of that is being distributed among counties.
Reed said cities and behavioral health providers are planning to apply for additional state money specifically to increase beds for addiction treatment.
“One of the primary limitations we have right is the availability of residential beds for opioid use disorder treatment,” Reed said.
Reed said an opioid task force composed of county staff is drafting a plan for using the county’s opioid settlement money. They hope to finish by October 1.
Among the task force’s ideas are training detention service officers to recognize the symptoms of opioid use disorder at jail intake. Another is to expand drug courts to specifically address opioid addiction. County staff are also drafting a grant program for community groups.
Do you have a tip? Send it to us at tips@kera.org.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, considermaking a tax-deductible gifttoday. Thank you.
