Nassau County opioid settlement grantees report naloxone distribution, outreach and service expansion

Caitlin Miller, community outreach lead for the Nassau County Coalition, told the Nassau County Opioid Settlement Task Force on April 10 that the coalition has used settlement funds to scale naloxone and prevention outreach across the county. "From a financial standpoint, we have utilized $6,363,123 dollars of our allocated a hundred thousand," Miller said, and described a combination of community events and partner distributions that the coalition said produced recent results.

The report outlined several measures of reach and distribution. Miller said the coalition had distributed 709 naloxone (Narcan) kits and 760 doTERRA packs through outreach and partner events, reported roughly 16,831 social-media reaches fiscal year to date and estimated in-person engagement of about 1,290 people. Miller said a March 31 overdose-awareness seminar in Fernandina Beach drew about 150 attendees and that the coalition distributed 166 Narcan kits and 66 doTERRA packs at that event.

The coalition also described recurring initiatives: a DEA drug-takeback scheduled for April 26 across four county sites in partnership with the Fernandina Beach Police Department and the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office; a youth prevention event titled "Bridal night done right" planned for April 18 in Callahan; a Screenagers screening and panel on May 8 at the Yulee Public Library; and a Rad Kids camp in June at the Yulee Sports Complex. Miller said the coalition’s "Better Without It" campaign is in planning and that the coalition is building a youth advisory team led by a tenth-grade representative from Yulee High School.

Anna Santiago, community behavioral health program director at Inspired Arise, summarized one quarter of operations after the provider expanded services into Nassau County. "Our goal is to bring holistic care to the community, and we strongly believe that stronger families equal stronger communities," Santiago said. She reported that Inspire to Rise served 28 participants in therapeutic services during the quarter, received five new referrals and completed two new intakes. The organization listed community education, treatment for substance misuse and mental-health services, peer community support, and distribution of concrete supports (Narcan, fentanyl test strips and diapers).

Sarah Smith, director of grants management at Starting Point Behavioral Healthcare, gave a broader operational update across three programs funded by the settlement. Smith said Starting Point’s prevention work used LifeSkills training in elementary and school programs and that pre/post testing showed knowledge gains — a 16% increase among fourth graders (178 students tested) and a 26% increase among third graders (204 students tested). Smith said Starting Point assigned a peer-support specialist to its open-access assessment process; the peer team served about 80 individuals in the quarter and reduced no-show rates, producing a 72.6% attendance rate for the next appointment after open access. She also said Starting Point distributed 417 boxes of Narcan during the intake/open-access process.

Smith provided a financial snapshot: a contract amount of $210,155.08, with $159,733.66 spent to date. She listed personnel expenses of $115,187.20, operational expenses of $30,025.22 and an administrative allocation of $14,005.41, leaving an unspent balance intended to be drawn down over the award period.

Task force members asked each presenter about staffing, program scaling and partnerships. Starting Point said it has added a co-responder (Michael Gilman) and a new team leader (Kyle Bishop) and is exploring co-responder deployments in schools. Inspire to Rise said it had just hired a peer community advocate and planned expanded outreach and MOUs with local partners including St. Johns River Network.

Task force members praised the reports and encouraged grantees to continue outreach and documentation ahead of the next funding cycle.

Looking ahead, grantees noted upcoming events and opportunities for community engagement and recruitment of youth peer advisers. The coalition emphasized continued participation in county takebacks and youth prevention dates in April–June.