The Vermont Department of Health says doctors are still giving people too many opiates.

State and federal officials announced this week that Vermont would receive $371,616 from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to help prevent prescription opiate abuse. we want to engage pediatricians because adolescents are high risk.

Chen said he also wants to encourage pediatricians to make use of the Vermont Precrisption Monitoring System, which records all schedule II, III and IV controlled substances dispensed to patients from Vermont pharmacies, helping doctors spot red flags regarding prescription drug use.

The department also plans to use some of the money to develop and implement a statewide communication strategy raising awareness of opiate addiction.

I think its one thing to give a message, he said. I think its another thing to have people understand it and another thing entirely to have people act on it.

Chen said there was finally evidence the message was being received and acted on.

This year was the first year I saw a downtick in opiates prescribed to Vermonters, he said.

By this year, Chen meant 2015 the most recent year the department had data for when the number of Vermonters receiving prescriptions for opiates dropped from 118,802 in 2014 to 116,617. The percentage of 15- to 18-year-olds who reported misusing prescription opiates in the last year went from 13.3 in 2010 to 9.1 in 2013.

In the meantime, Chen said he is working on regulations regarding opiate prescriptions for acute pain, trying to cut down on the number of patients who are given far more painkillers than they realistically need.

Weve created both an expectation on the patients part youve got to give them something and an expectation on the providers part they want to make sure people have enough, he said. The Vermont Department of Health says doctors are still giving people too many opiates.