- April 17, 2024
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When it comes to treating substance use disorders — particularly involving opioids — Volusia County need more services, according to a report by the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Social and Behavioral Sciences.
The age-adjusted death rate for opioid overdoses in Volusia County was 63.2 per 100,000 people in 2020 — over double the state’s rate of 29.9, the report stated. The death rate for drug overdoses in general was 69.2 per 100,000 people in Volusia. The state’s rate was 36.
But when it came to the availability of mental health services, Volusia County fell behind the state in almost every category: Licensed mental health counselors, licensed psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, total behavioral/mental health professionals and adult psychiatric beds.
The only service availability category for which Volusia surpassed the state was child and adolescent psychiatric beds.
“Again, high need in Volusia County, but we’re slightly behind the rest of the state in terms of access to care,” said Randa Matusiak, with Volusia County Public Protection.
Matusiak presented the report to Volusia County officials during the first meeting of the Opioid Abatement Funding Advisory Board meeting on Friday, Feb. 24.
Composed of 14 members, the board was created to help the county determine how to use settlements funds from a nationwide class-action suit against major opioid pharmaceutical distributors, including Janssen, Endo, Teva, CVS, Walgreens and Walmart.
The board, according to the county, will review Volusia’s Opioid Abatement Plan and make funding recommendations to the Volusia County Council.
Three seats — representing Edgewater, Holly Hill and Lake Helen — remain vacant on the board, which is chaired by County Councilman Danny Robins.
The settlements, totaling $26 billion over an 18-year period, were finalized on Jan. 31, 2022. Volusia County will receive 3.13% of the regional funds, or over $27.39 million. Flagler County, which also joined the suit, will receive 0.38%, or $3.4 million.
The city of Ormond Beach will receive just under $293,000.
“I want to see us make recommendations to the council that provide the best benefit to Volusia County residents, and also the most bang for their buck,” Mayor Bill Partington said at the board meeting.
Opioid abuse abatement is the goal, Partington continued, and medication-assisted treatment — a plan which, according to the FDA, uses medicine, counseling and behavioral therapies to treat opioid use disorders — is a part of that. But the mayor, who serves as the board’s vice chair, added that he’d like to see an increase in therapy services.
“People are dying every day,” Partington said. “The record here is not great. It’s worse maybe in a couple other places, but we’re up there near the top of the list. Whatever we can do to help prevent that, I think it’s going to be a good thing.”
There was one discrepancy in the report: the number of adult substance abuse beds in the county. The report noted four, but a representative from SMA Healthcare, Nicole Sharbono, told the board it has 54 men’s residential treatment beds in DeLand, 24 adolescent beds in Daytona Beach, 70 women’s beds in Flagler County (the two counties share the facility) and 19 detox beds.
“With that said, though, with the exception of the adolescent beds, we have a waiting list,” Sharbono said.
The detox beds are available on a first-come, first-served basis, but they’re nearly always occupied.
Ponce Inlet Police Chief Jeff Glazier said that law enforcement officers “deal with the symptoms of crime,” but not the root causes.
“We don’t deal with the poverty,” he said. “We don’t deal with the social injustice. We don’t deal with the inequities, the poor parenting and things like that. So I think when we attack this issue, I’m excited to go after those root causes — to go after the trauma that these people are experiencing that sometimes causes these opioid addictions and things like that.”
To start, the board will meet on a monthly basis.
The next board meeting’s date has yet to be announced, but county staff were directed to explore a date in late March.
