In this program, DOH-Seminole established two main goals, each with three objectives:
1. Establish Linkages to Care
a. Implement support care linkages to improve delivery of substance use prevention and intervention services and improve awareness of, and coordinate community resources, by providing critical personnel to respond to non-fatal drug overdose cases.
b. Increase and improve coordination among organizations that provide care or enable linkages to care for individuals that have an SUD.
c. Improve community awareness of available SUD services through marketing and data sharing efforts and integrate collection in a public facing website which allows partner and public access to data related to substance use.
2. Partnerships with Public Safety and First Responders
a. Strengthen programmatic partnerships and protocols to leverage the resources and expertise of public safety and first responder organizations.
b. Enhance the local response to non-fatal overdose calls to law enforcement by providing community paramedic and substance use disorder therapeutic overlay services in the field.
c. Evaluate program impact in Seminole County by comprehensive data collection and analysis related to substance use disorder prevalence and service effectiveness.
Activities were established under two main categories, Establishing Linkages to Care and Establishing Partnerships with Public Safety and First Responders. The activities for establishing linkages to care include: providing critical personnel to respond to non-fatal overdoses; coordinating team meetings with DOH-Seminole, Seminole County Sheriff's Office (SCSO), and AdventHealth's Hope and Healing Center; defining a list of preferred SUD providers for coordination and service referrals, and develop the interagency protocol for DOH-Seminole Community Paramedic response to referrals from SCSO involving non-fatal overdoses.
The activities for establishing partnerships with public safety and first responders include: provide training to DOH-Seminole and AdventHealth's Hope and Healing Center on the SCSO Seminole Collaborative Opioid Response Effort (SCORE) Team's protocols for response to non-fatal overdoses; develop inter-agency protocols with AdventHealth's Hope and Healing Center and DOH-Seminole for access to AdventHealth's overdose dashboard; develop a reporting tool to track the number of non-fatal overdose referrals to DOH-Seminole, response actions, and total number of overdose deaths in Seminole County. The team also created a media campaign to utilize graphics for bus wraps for the local transit system, create messaging for local billboards, develop materials for community outreach events, and enhance DOH-Seminole's public facing website (http://seminole.floridahealth.gov/locations/sanford.html) utilizing Mysidewalk to incorporate information and data about this project.
In this project, DOH-Seminole was able to hire staff capable of responding to non-fatal overdose referrals. This included a community paramedic, project coordinator, project evaluator, and epidemiologist. Each week the team met with members of the SCSO and SCORE Team, AdventHealth's Hope and Healing Center, and other community partners. Together, the team created a list of area providers, that work with individuals with SUDs, and develop agency appropriate protocols on responses to non-fatal overdoses. The team created templates, data project records, and home visit logs to document responses to the referrals given to us from the SCORE Team. The team was also successfully able to create bus wraps and billboard signs for the local media campaign using the Opioid Prescription campaign from the CDC.
The program started in January 2020 and will be completed in July 2022. Throughout the development of the program, DOH-Seminole consulted with the SCSO and AdventHealth. There were numerous meetings held to discuss the program, how it would look, how it would work, and what the intended outcomes would be. Once funding was established, it was DOH-Seminole's role to plan and implement the program. Early activities included hiring personnel, establishing meetings, creating protocols, integrating data collection in DOH-Seminole's public facing website, creating graphics for bus wraps and billboards, and working with SCSO and AdventHealth to develop and acquire marketing materials. Utilizing the Community Mobile Health Unit and the Community Paramedic, outreach events were held, in coordination with community stakeholders. DOH-Seminole established monthly events in the community to provide education, medical screenings, vaccinations, food boxes, socks, hygiene kits, and raincoats.
While working through collaboration in this program, DOH-Seminole was able to expand outreach to local faith organizations, sober living houses, and recovery centers that serve the homeless population and PWUD. This further established DOH-Seminole as a valuable resource for the community. To ensure the program was targeting the population that needed resources, the team reviewed overdose data and created hotspot maps based on the data. This allowed DOH-Seminole to focus on specific areas of Seminole County that needed the most assistance.
This program was made possible through a grant from CDC and NACCHO. The Implementing Overdose Prevention Strategies at the Local Level (IOPSLL) cost reimbursement grant provided funding for key personnel, supplies and equipment. The following is a summary of funds spent for the IOPSLL program:
In creating the budget, we ensured that all expenditures were related to our established activities. Our initial activity was to put together our team. For our Program Coordinator, Community Paramedic, Epidemiologist, and Program Evaluator we budgeted $244,995. As of November 15, 2021, we have requested reimbursement for $103,203. We also had to factor in Fringe Benefits. Thus far, we have requested reimbursement for $25,025. For equipment, office supplies, medical supplies, printing of marketing materials, public facing website (Mysidewalk), bus wraps, and billboards we budgeted for $118,037. As of November 15, 2021, we have requested $57,916 for reimbursement. We also budgeted for cell phones ($2,196) and trainings ($3,250). Our partnership with AdventHealth's Hope and Healing Center included assistance with funding for an additional Substance Use Disorder licensed mental health therapist. For this, we budgeted $88,233. Please see attachment for further breakdown of costs associated with this program.