Frederick County health officials are hopeful that early or preventative treatment will help them in the race to get ahead of the growing problem of opioid abuse.

The majority of the $468,000 the Frederick County Health Department expects to receive this summer from a federal Substance Abuse Treatment Outcomes Partnership grant will help fund two programs. Those programs are aimed at providing counseling for different populations considered particularly at risk for substance abuse, said Andrea Walker, director of the health departmentas Behavioral Health Services Division.

The first program will place peer recovery specialists in the work release program at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center and with parole and probation and drug court, while the second will expand the departmentas counseling program for at-risk youths in county schools, Walker said.

In May 2015, the health department placed a specially trained Peer Recovery Specialist in Frederick Memorial Hospital to identify patients who might need substance-abuse help, connect them with services and follow up with them after theyave been discharged to help ensure they sought treatment.

Taking the data from that pilot program, the health department approached the stateas Behavioral Health Administration and was put in touch with the grant opportunity.

Now, with the grant, full-time peers will be placed in the countyas drug court and parole and probations office, as well as in the Frederick County Adult Detention Centeras work release program, Walker said.

The idea is to ensure users or those at risk to relapse who are about to be released from the detention center have full access to services outside the detention center to keep them sober, Walker said.

aSo this [peer] is going to really be able to dive in there and be a support and say, aWhat do you need right now to get you prepared for getting out? Will you still be on parole and probation?aa Walker said.

In addition to the peer positions, the grant money will also fund a new a full-time clinical staff member to provide even more treatment to inmates suffering from substance abuse, Walker said.

Finally, the grant will allow the health department to hire a new masteras level clinician to expand its aKids Like Usa program that targets at-risk students in partnership with Frederick County Public Schools.

aIt works with students who have been identified as being in homes where there is use, drug or alcohol use, and our clinicians run tests and work with them and follow them through their school years to really give them the best chance of survival,a Walker said. By adding a third clinician to the program, they can expand to eight more schools.

As the program expands over the years, the health department is collecting data on its effectiveness and trends picked up regarding early drug experimentation, Walker said. So far, about 10 years of data has been collected.

As beneficial as grant money is, organizations like the health department and Frederick Memorial Hospital still face the problem of finite budgets, highlighting the importance of basing treatment and prevention programs on hard data.

Along with the Maryland Public Opinion Survey on Opioids and the Maryland Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, one of the most important surveys available to the health department is the draft 2016 Community Health Assessment, compiled in partnership with Frederick Memorial Hospital, Walker said.

While the first two studies include some information relevant to Frederick County, the hospital data is particularly helpful, Walker said. Even just getting an idea of the scope of the problem can make collecting the data worthwhile, added Sarah Drennan, a clinical treatment services manager.

aWhat we can clearly see from the data and also from our treatment data, from those who have sought treatment, is the overall prevalence of opioids,a Drennan said. Roughly one in five substance abuse visits are opioid related, the data indicates.

Those numbers, along with the data collected from the countyas Overdose Fatality Review Board a which includes members from local law enforcement and medical responders as well as health officials a also prompted the hospital to institute a new policy of its own, said Jason Barth, a manager of behavioral health services at the hospital.

aFor everyone who comes into the hospital with a chief complaint of an opioid respiratory suppression, we offer that individual and/or the individualas family and support system access to the hospitalas naloxone and training in how to use it,a Barth said, referring to an overdose-reversing drug that law enforcement and EMS also use with increasing regularity.

aWe prefer for them to leave the hospital with them in hand, as opposed to just having a prescription slip,a Barth said.

The data was also used to help direct the departmentas aTake Back My Lifea video campaign, which used stories from real-life addicts and their families.

aWhen we do these types of surveys and we collect this type of data, the state reviews our strategic plans and they really want our approaches to be data driven, so we focus on the population that appears to have the most need,a Walker said.

The hospital data indicates that 52 percent of hospital visits for opioid abuse in 2014 were men, 87.6 percent were white and 58.9 percent were between 18 and 39 years old.

The department also included testimonials from women and minorities in the video campaign, but a data-guided approach to treatment and prevention is generally preferred when available, Walker said.

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