City, county have $15.5M to spend fighting opioid use. Here’s an early look at the plan

People in Sedgwick County could see expanded treatment options for substance use as the city and county plan how they will spend $15.5 million in opioid settlement funds.

Local officials heard recommendations recently about how the money could help mitigate the opioid crisis in the county. Options focused on expanding substance use treatment services, stigma reduction, overdose prevention and integrated care.

Overdose deaths are trending downward in Sedgwick County but are still much higher than other parts of the state. In 2023, 243 people died from an overdose – most fentanyl-related – in the county, according to the health department.

The recommendations come a year after local agencies hired a third party, the Steadman Group, to create a strategic plan on how to spend the settlement funds over 14 years.

“Recommendations for phased implementation through 2030 ... will ensure the transparent, impactful use of opioid settlement funds for the Wichita Sedgwick County Community,” the plan reads.

The city and county decided in 2023 to pool their funds together after they signed on to a national settlement agreement with opioid manufacturers and distributors for their role in the opioid crisis.

A needs assessment created to help form the plan found several barriers to accessing substance use treatment in the county, especially for people who are uninsured.

“Importantly, participants shared that beds are often available for people with insurance,” the assessment reads, “but uninsured, underinsured, or low-income individuals can wait upwards of two months for an available bed.”

It also found several gaps for people trying to seek help for substance use issues, including a lack of treatment beds, medical detox and overdose prevention services.

What’s in the plan?

About $6 million will likely go to expand treatment services, especially for uninsured people, according to the plan and documents obtained by The Eagle.

“Treatment is … really expensive, and so it needs a bigger slice of the pie,” Rhiannon Streight, consultant with the Steadman Group, said.

That could include offering medications for opioid use disorder in the county jail, which studies have shown reduces recidivism rates.

The local governments could also look at expanding diversion programs to get people into treatment, rather than staying at the county jail, according to the plan.

Other options for treatment include increasing the number of medical detox beds in Sedgwick County. Currently, only those who are insured are able to access medical detox services at area hospitals.

Efforts to expand the number of medical detox beds are already underway, with the expansion of the Substance Abuse Center of Kansas and COMCARE near the future biomedical campus downtown.

The local governments are also looking at “postvention services” which provide care to people who experience non-fatal overdoses, as well as their friends and family. Often, those services can help navigate people to treatment or other resources.

Smaller pieces of the pie

While a majority of the funds could go toward treatment services, the plan highlights a number of other areas the local governments should focus on, like stigma reduction campaigns, re-entry programs and naloxone distribution.

It also recommends area providers begin partnerships to streamline services for people who still use substances or who are trying to access treatment and recovery services.

That comes as area providers say they are struggling to address workforce shortages – another recommendation in the plan.

“‘We have good people, but we work them so hard they leave,’” a quote from the needs assessment reads.

During presentations to the city and county, elected officials had concerns about a 15% allocation for planning and coordinating how the governments would use those funds.

But the Steadman Group was adamant that the 15% is an overestimate, and that most other plans it helped create end up seeing overhead costs in the 10 to 12% range.

“We wanted to kind of overestimate, rather than underestimate, here the amount of dollars that will be needed to administer these funds,” Streight said. “So this would include maybe the staff time necessary, depending on the governance structure you choose to schedule these meetings and review RFPs and actually award winners.”

Left out of the plan, but mentioned in the needs assessment, is access to syringe service programs.

The programs provide disposable sterile syringes and injection equipment to mitigate the spread of diseases associated with intravenous drug use. They also help connect people to programs and services they may need. They’re illegal in the state of Kansas, and legal in some surrounding states.

During the presentation of the plan to county officials, Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter, who served on the committee to create the plan, said he prevented syringe service programs from being included.

“I made it very clear… I am not for that idea whatsoever. That’s not in this plan,” Easter said.

Before the local governments are able to allocate the $15.5 million, they have to decide who will help make decisions on where the money goes.

The advisory group recommended that the city and county create another committee with a mix of elected officials and an advisory group or bring on another third party in a public-private partnership.

The options will likely be discussed at a future meeting with the city and county.