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Thurston County Board approves 2026–27 opioid response plan, cites naloxone distribution and community campaigns
Summary
The board approved a two‑year opioid response plan that keeps harm‑reduction language and extends 2025 strategies into 2026–27. Public Health reported 3,644 naloxone kits distributed in 2025 via syringe services and 270 self‑reported overdose reversals tied to naloxone.
Thurston County’s Board of Health voted on Jan. 13 to approve the county’s 2026–27 opioid response plan, moving from an annual to a two‑year adoption cycle and retaining harm‑reduction strategies. The plan keeps four action areas—prevention, pregnant and parenting, treatment and overdose—and delegates implementation details to standing work groups.
Katie Strozyk, staff opioid and overdose response program manager, summarized 2025 activities the plan will carry forward: 55 community overdose‑response trainings that reached more than 500 people, distribution of 3,644 naloxone kits through the county syringe services program, and 270 self‑reported overdose reversals associated with naloxone distribution. Strozyk said those self‑reports undercount total reversals because they exclude first‑responder and hospital data; the county also is tracking 911 calls and fatal overdose statistics to form a fuller picture.
The presentation described communications and prevention work funded partly by the Washington State Department of Health, including digital billboards, movie‑theater PSAs, and localized artwork with QR codes directing residents to consistent information and naloxone access. County staff said the response plan preserves terms like “harm reduction” despite contentious federal rhetoric and will use work groups to develop SMART objectives and specific activities over the next months.
Board members asked for additional counts of first‑responder naloxone administrations and praised the county’s post‑overdose EMS follow‑up program. The motion to approve the plan passed on a voice vote; no roll‑call tally was provided in the transcript.
