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Thurston County Board of Health adopts 2025 opioid response plan
Summary
The Board approved a revised opioid response plan that keeps most strategies from 2024, adds older adults as a priority group and documents expanded naloxone distribution and community outreach.
Thurston County Board of Health on Jan. 14 approved the county'9s 2025 Opioid Response Plan, endorsing a set of 29 strategies aimed at prevention, treatment, overdose response and support for pregnant and parenting people.
The Board adopted the plan after a staff presentation that summarized a year-long community feedback process and highlighted expanded naloxone distribution, syringe-services outcomes and a new emphasis on older adults as a priority population.
Katie Serzic, Thurston County opioid and overdose response program manager, told the Board the plan reflects community input and ongoing work: "It's impacting folks here in Thurston County that is also saving lives on a daily basis." Serzic said the plan retains most strategies from 2024 but reorganizes the document to align with the Board of Health'9s five goals and clarifies which action-oriented work groups will carry each strategy.
Serzic described the public process used to revise the plan: an online survey open about a month that gathered 101 complete responses, distribution through partner lists and targeted outreach at the county'9s 2024 Opioid Response Forum. She said most respondents supported the plan as written but the survey flagged two priority-population gaps: younger people (under 18) and older adults. The proposed 2025 plan adds older adults (age 65+) to the list of priority populations.
Staff presented three operational highlights from 2024 to show the plan is active, not just a document: roughly 110 local overdose-response trainings offered in 2024; more than 500 naloxone kits distributed at community trainings and partner events; and more than 3,225 naloxone kits distributed through the county syringe services program. Serzic said clients at the syringe program self-reported about 427 overdose reversals during 2024 after receiving replacement naloxone kits.
The plan also increases focus on stigma reduction, expands strategies for pregnant and parenting people (enabled by adding a dedicated staff position), and calls for greater use of peers with lived experience across prevention, treatment and overdose strategies. Serzic said the plan aligns local work with state Department of Health and Health Care Authority contracts already in place.
Board members praised the staff work and community engagement. After discussion the Board voted to approve the 2025 opioid response plan. The motion was called and the chair recorded the ayes.
The full plan begins on page 188 of the meeting packet and will be posted on the Public Health & Social Services website for public reference; staff said materials and links also will be shared through partner channels.
Ending: The approved plan will guide local prevention, treatment and overdose-response activities through 2025; staff signaled that specific work-group objectives and measurable targets will be set by the plan's four action-area work groups and reported back to the Board during the year.
