Substance Use Prevention Coalition
Addresses Resource Concerns at June Meeting
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[June 17, 2024]
The
Substance Use Prevention Coalition convened for its June meeting at
Lincoln Memorial Hospital. Members of vested organizations shared
prevention and harm reduction updates, as well as discussed concerns for
the future of substance use prevention and supports in light of upcoming
discontinuance of state grants and funding.
Prevention
The youth vaping and alcohol campaigns have concluded as the school year
has finished. Scheduling is beginning for the coming school year and
2025. The youth prevention campaigns will resume in August. The Illinois
Youth Survey data for Logan County will be available in September. Youth
prevention education will start scheduling in September
Harm Reduction
Mt. Pulaski library has free naloxone and testing strips as well as the
vending machine at Family Custom Cleaners in Lincoln. The vending
machine has distributed 688 naloxone, 687 fentanyl test strips, 587
xylazine test strips, and 115 benzo test strips.
Recovery Oriented Systems of Care (ROSC) reported that the Sheriff is
open to ROSC donating resource bags for those released from the jail.
The resource bags would include naloxone, testing strips, and
information cards about agencies and organizations. Inmates are not
staying as long in jail, so this is a way to provide assistance.
ROSC events coming up in June include booths at First Friday in Havana,
Second Friday in Mt. Pulaski, and Third Friday in Lincoln. ROSC is
planning to host a free screening of the movie “Inside Out 2” for
families because of its connection to mental health. The Arlee Theater
in Mason City is confirmed for June 29 at 7 p.m. They are waiting on
confirmation for a screening in Lincoln. In July, ROSC will host a
summer speaker jam. August 31 is Overdose Awareness Day with an Overdose
Awareness panel planned of those who have been saved by naloxone or who
have administered naloxone. Recovery walks are scheduled on September 7
in Lincoln and on September 14 in Havana. September 21 is the first
National Youth Recovery Rally, and people will be coming from all over
the world to Chicago for the rally.
ROSC partners with the Lincoln jail for recovery meetings. They are
always looking for volunteers to conduct recovery meetings at the jail.
The local Crisis Response team and jail have an opportunity to further
their relationship as Crisis Response has mental health hours allotted.
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In Mason county, ROSC is working on getting harm
reduction available and building relationships and starting
conversations around stigma. ROSC is also working on a stigma
reduction campaign on social media and in the community so that
people will be comfortable talking about recovery. The ROSC council
meets the third Thursday of every month on Zoom, with plans to
transition to a hybrid meeting. The subcommittee of Recovery in
Action meets the second Tuesday of every month at Hope on Fifth.
Molly McCain, Community Health Coordinator at Lincoln
Memorial Hospital, is working on the text campaign for high school
freshmen to begin next school year. She is working on cards and
flyers to use for advertising and on content for the texts. The
Behavioral Health Crisis conference was conducted earlier in the
week addressing topics such as wrap around services and Mobile
Crisis Units. “Tall Cop Says Stop” training is conducted by a police
officer who is a dynamic speaker with extensive information that is
continually updated. He also has a podcast.
The environmental scan is ongoing with some changes because some
businesses have closed. Plans are to finish the scan this summer by
August 1.
Hope on Fifth will be having a hybrid meeting on June 28 about
moving forward. Carle is figuring out logistics for offering
services at the site. A veterans’ peer support group and a veterans’
recovery meeting are hosted there. There is an ongoing AA meeting at
Trinity Episcopal Church. Joe Schaler’s untimely passing, whose
dream and whose efforts played a major role in bringing Hope on
Fifth to fruition, has caused apprehension, but rather it should
rally support in the spirit of his goals and passions for this
community. More regular updates from Hope on Fifth are forthcoming.
SUPC members discussed ideas and possibilities for
filling the gap being left by the end of the grant for the Warm Hand
Off Advocate who assesses substance use and provides support at the
hospital and in the emergency room setting. Discussion continued of
how to strengthen existing supports and how to build more.
Additional options were offered regarding directed conversations and
motivational interview training as potential strategies.
The next SUPC meeting will be July 11 at LMH. The next quarterly
Community Health Collaborative networking meeting is September 5 at
LMH. LMH will host a free Trauma-Informed Training at LMH on June
20; registration is required.
[Stephanie Hall] |