Minutes- October 2015

I.  Introduction from D.A. Tim Cruz
  •  Development of a county wide task force model that will bring all entities together
    • Expressed that this task force will be a one stop clearinghouse to share resources with law enforcement, education, medical depts., etc.
    • Last year in 2014 the amount of fatal unattended overdoses (not in hospital or facility) in Plymouth was 74 – in 2015, we’ve already reached 100 fatal unattended overdoses
      • The story is always the same
      • Gathering data is important to see how bad the problem really is
  • Finding the true data is necessary to see and plan for where we need to go from here
  • The organizational chart of the task force was presented showing each sub-committee: education, public safety, medical, data collection and legislative
    • The Chairs of each Sub Committee will be a Task Force Member
    • Contributing members of each subcommittee will be Associate Members of the Task Force- This will be how the task force grows
  • We are currently working on including a fire chief from the county to co-chair the public safety committee and a judge for the legislative committee
  • If other sub groups are created they can be integrated within the five committees- such as the community coalitions. We need to involve the community as there has been a lot of interest from the community on wanting to get involved-  The Community Coalitions could be a sub-group of the Public Safety Committee.  This sub group would be chaired by an Associate Member, that Associate Member would meet with the coalitions and would keep an open dialogue with the Public Safety Chairs.  The Associate Members would also report to the Task Force Members.
  • It is the responsibility of the Chairs, and their Associate Members to invite people to serve on their subcommittees
  • Sub-committee groups should meet as needed and report back to the Task Force on their progress, challenges, data collected, etc.
II.  Data Collection
  • Ed Jacoubs updated the task force on Data Collection:
    •  An intake form was created by Pam Kelley and Sean Verano, our Data Consultants for chiefs to report back on their collection of data – ex. How do they collect data? Do they use Narcan? What do they do with the data collected?
      • 22 forms have been received thus far
    • A letter was sent out to the hospitals and Signature has committed to sending data
      • A message will now be sent out to other hospitals encouraging them to follow Signature’s lead on providing information
    • There is a clear discrepancy with data and the ways in which it is being collected
      • Death certificates in Brockton revealed higher numbers of death in comparison to what was reported by the state
      • We need better data collection
    • What’s the importance of the data?
      • The Drug Free Communities grant for the 5 towns pays for student surveys within the schools
      • Data from the schools can inform them on where they are at with the problem and then addressing how we can help them
III.  Education Subcommittee
  • Mary Waldron updated the task force on the Education Subcommittee:
    •  The Dean of the College of Education at BSU has expressed that this is an important focus and that the college needs to engage the faculty on campus
    • The Dept. of Social Work revealed babies being born with drugs in their placenta
      • This work is incorporated within so much of the work on campus
    • A graduate student at BSU has been working to support the Education committee and reported on some of her findings:
      • The Department of Education in Ohio and Washington State were referenced as two main examples throughout the county
        • Ohio’s Dept. of Ed has included policy in their work whereas Washington State has more of a center approach and hasn’t turned to policy yet
        • Health-education must include drug education as a K-12 approach
        • An ed-based initiative might not be the way to go
        • Maybe escape D.A.R.E. mentality and pursue a curricula approach or a teaching teachers how to assess these types of things
      • On the ground tactics on the university level to look at issues on campus – unifying our approach
    • A professor of Health Promotion and Health Studies at BSU informed the group that education is necessary, but insufficient for prevention
    • Mary noted that they are documenting who they are talking to, where they are going so that their progress is documented
    • There will be links between the policy work around education and the legislative subcommittee – the education material will likely be shared with the legislative and medical subcommittees down the line
    • Paul Jehle, Pastor of New Testament Church, mentioned the importance of a faith sub-committee
      • Represents a lot of people under the 5 sub-committees
      • Seeing what kind of curriculum of prevention the churches are using
  • Family approaches
  • Gathering and interviewing pastors to see what they are doing
  • A question was asked if it is the intention of President Fred Clark to bring in superintendents to the education sub-committee
    • Mary noted that they are starting with the Dean and Masters of Social Work and then convening superintendents
    • They have discussed ideas with Kathy Smith of the Brockton Public Schools
  • Mary noted that they are getting inquiries from outside and inside to take part in this work and our meetings
    • In terms of external members wanting to participate, the Chief of Staff at BSU suggested there being a cross over with faith-based and community members
  • The DA noted that people outside of the county will be able to take and learn from our task force work in the future
IV.  Sheriff Joe MacDonald updated the task force on the section 35 pilot program
  •  Population in correction facilities has gone down – the facility is over built with excess capacity, making it possible to close a large piece of the facility and incorporating housing units specifically separate from others
    • 60 bed housing unit set up as dormitory – 25-30 beds have been up and running
      • Everything in terms of service is still available within the facility so there is no issue of cost, the resources are there
      • Average stay for a County Inmate is 90 Days
  • Average stay for a Section 35 Civil Commitment has increased from 12 days to 30 days
  • DOC provides the counseling services for the Section 35 Unit.
  • Preference of participants in Plymouth County, but we are seeing residents from other counties as well
  • Pre-empting criminal activity
  • The Sheriff asked how we can emulate this in other counties
  • The DA mentioned how hard it is to get section 35’s – once it is maxed out it will stay maxed out
  • The DA also stated that having a facility puts us in the position to find help for those inside
  • Chris Mellow from Teen Challenge noted that the preventative end for a portion of time is not going to solve anything, but for those with the issue, education is effective (Ex. decision-making, responsible citizens).
    • Teen Challenge helps to rebuild self-worth – the word of God changing their behaviors and mentality
V. Dr. Dan Muse reported on the Medical Sub-Committee:
  •  Good template with what Lisa collected
    • State system – ambulance, EMS data system
      • Hospitals in Brockton – expand to county: # of overdoses, hot spots of occurrences
    • Physicians have dropped the ball – needs to be on local level
    • Minimizing narcotics
      • ER guidelines for discharge
      • Small amount of meds given for pain relief, provide risks and discuss with patients
  • More proactive approach
  • Addressing disposal of meds
    • The DA noted that we have to comply with the DPH regulations
    • Police station lock boxes for drug disposal
      • Drug boxes taken to SEMASS, Covanta to be destroyed
  • Brockton Police is working on putting a lock box in the station lobby within the month
  • Lock boxes for drug disposal help to lessen the amount put out there and ensure an avenue to get rid of excess meds
  • Muse is pushing for Monitored Prescription Programming
    • The DA noted that this may cause CORI violations, laws always put out that make challenges
    • Dr. Muse highlighted malpractice insurance, trying risk management
      • If physicians prescribe more than 3 days of meds then they need to call to check up on patient
VI.  Future Tasks
  • DA noted if anyone needs help on a task they can reach out to the DA or Sheriff’s Office
    •  We should be thinking about who else is a good fit to fit in each sub-committee
    • The Chief of Staff at BSU also noted that they can look into possible interns at BSU to provide extra assistance to sub-committees – talk with Mary Waldron if you are interested in this
VII.  Mission, Objective, Goals
  •  The task force reviewed the mission statement
    • Hillary suggested changing “substance abuse” in the second sentence to “substance use disorders” to avoid stigmatizing language
    • Before next meeting task force members can submit any suggestions or changes to the mission statement
    • Potentially break up the first sentence of the objective into two
    • Within the goals:
      • Add prevention to goal #3
      • Add a goal #6: reducing stigma
  • Add a goal #7: continual information (continue to hone conversations even when task force ends)
  • Can we incorporate anything else from Governor’s Task Force?
    • Sheriff noted that he thinks we are as comprehensive as the governors, but will look into it in greater detail

VIII.  Sub-Committee Working Groups

  •  DA suggested reaching out to DPH to understand where we’re at – we don’t want them to be a road block
    • Karen at the Sheriff’s Department will contact DPH and be involved at the HHS health and human service level
    • Hillary suggested involving Ryan Morgan from Independence Academy to the education sub-committee – they will be able to inform the group on how to work with students
    • Ed noted that the Care & Protection numbers have drastically increased – 17 open cases in 2010 and now 146 today
      • Drug-endangered children – this should be added to the education piece
      • The DA highlighted the A.C.E.S. study
  • Grandparents taking care of kids – find ways to address this through education objective
    • Training grandparents on drug evaluation
      • Mary noted that BSU is also interested in this
    • The DA noted that we are caught in a cycle
      • People who he was representing years ago are now parents and grandparents of young kids – there is a cycle now with kids who are exposed to drugs at a young age
      • We need to see these numbers as well
IX.  Adjournment