What is It?

In 2017, Cuyahoga County filed suit against manufacturers, distributors, and four individuals who were instrumental in promoting opioids for sale and distribution nationally and in Cuyahoga County.

On October 10, Executive Budish announced Opioid Mitigation Plan Phase I, which invests the County’s settlement money in programs that work directly toward prevention, treatment and recovery related to this epidemic.

On October 22, additional settlements were made with distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, Henry Schein, McKesson and drug maker Teva Pharmaceuticals totaling $179 million for the County.

Who is Receiving Phase I Funds?

Highlights from the plan include:

The Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board

• Phase I provides $5,433,000 to the ADAMHS Board for an additional 32 Residential Treatment Beds and for the expansion of its Partial Hospitalization and Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP). The Residential Treatment Beds will serve approximately 260 additional clients. The expansion of the Partial Hospitalization and IOP will service approximately 312 additional clients.
• Additional funding from the ADAMHS Board is being allocated to St. Vincent Charity’s Rosary Hall. $2 million will provide for:
  • Peer recovery—St. Vincent Charity’s Rosary Hall would like to focus their initial efforts with the over 300 individuals who come to their emergency department as a result of an overdose.
  • The expansion of their Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)—St. Vincent Charity’s Rosary Hall is looking to expand its PHP capacity to serve approximately 130 individuals on an annual basis. St. Vincent Charity’s Rosary Hall expects to offer a third session of its IOP that would enable them to serve over 245 individuals annually.
  • The establishment of a panel for integrated care so that patients have increased access to the right care at the right time.

MetroHealth

• MetroHealth will receive $1,772,000 to treat and serve addicted inmates at the County Jail. MetroHealth will identify individuals with addiction problems and will treat these inmates using specially trained medical professionals focused on treatment, substance withdrawal and suicide prevention.
• MetroHealth will receive another $931,000 to create an opioid treatment program unit at the jail which will bed federally licensed to treat opioid use disorder with methadone and buprenorphine.

Thrive ED Program

• The County will provide $3 million to hospital emergency rooms to extend the Thrive ED Program—this will go into most of the emergency rooms in the county. Thrive ED is an innovative program linking individuals in an emergency room that survive an overdose for immediate withdrawal management, treatment and other recovery support services.

Sobriety, Treatment and Recovery Teams (START) Program

• The Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services’ START Program will receive $3.5 million. The START Program works to ensure the safety of mothers and newborn children who have confirmed chemical dependency problems. Funding will be used to significantly increase staff as data shows that mothers involved in START are 1.8 times more likely to achieve sobriety through the program.

Cuyahoga County also anticipates creating a diversion program in 2020 that would allow low-level drug offenders to seek support, services and recovery. The County is planning to provide $2.5 million for the diversion program as an initial investment.

Phase I of the Cuyahoga County Opioid Crisis Mitigation Plan

What About Funds from the Second Settlement?

Cuyahoga County Council proposed that the $179 million secured from the settlements made on October 22 be placed into a special Opioid Mitigation Fund to ensure all funds are used only for purposes related to the opioid epidemic. The County is currently in the process of putting together a plan to disperse these funds.