The Comm County Board of Health on Sept. 16 voted to recommend that the county commissioners approve a $25,000 request from opioid settlement funds to produce a comprehensive opioid "gaps" report and an interactive public dashboard to track uses and outcomes.

The lede: The project would produce a 10-year retrospective of overdose data, a community partner survey mapping local treatment and prevention services, cross-reference those services against the approved uses list for settlement funds, and deliver a public-facing dashboard to improve transparency and inform funding decisions.

Jenny (HHS staff) opened the item and said the county and the Behavioral Health Advisory Board had discussed using opioid settlement dollars but needed more comprehensive data to guide decisions. She turned the presentation over to Lenny, a public health staff member, who described the proposed report and deliverables.

Lenny said the report would include a decade-long review of fatal and nonfatal overdose statistics beginning with the 2015 implementation of the overdose notifiable condition rule, a community partner survey to inventory local substance-use interventions and treatment by service area, and a cross-reference to the state-approved uses list for opioid settlement dollars. "The goal with this report would be both to act as a tool to make decisions for targeting the funding, but also a baseline framework to be able to measure progress over time," Lenny said.

The proposal requested $25,000 from opioid settlement funds to cover staff time to build the report and the interactive dashboard hosted on the county HHS website. Lenny said the work would be done primarily in-house with support from county communications and GIS staff and that portions of the required data and frameworks already exist.

Board members asked about capacity and timeline. Lenny and Jenny said the timeline built in cushion and that multiple staff and existing tools would support the effort; they acknowledged that many department staff are grant-funded and the request would cover staff time charged to opioid settlement funds rather than divert other grant deliverables. "The opioid settlement funding would be buying a chunk of money since another staff's time," Lenny said.

Several board members emphasized public transparency. One member said the dashboard should be usable by community partners who contribute survey data, and another asked that outreach include nontraditional participants such as faith-based organizations. Lenny agreed that outreach and public meetings would be part of the public phase.

Action: A motion to recommend approval of the Collin County opioid gaps report proposal for $25,000 from opioid settlement funds was moved and seconded; the board approved the recommendation by voice vote with those present saying "aye" and no members opposed. The motion will go forward to the Board of County Commissioners for final approval.

Ending: The board noted that some settlement funds are already being used for harm reduction services while the report is completed and that the report is intended to improve accountability and help match funding timelines and strategies over the multi-decade settlement period.