Opioid settlement money to fund new diversion program position

     In 2020, Jones County, along with Story and Black Hawk counties, were the only three counties in Iowa to receive funding from the state to start a diversion program. Jones County was awarded over $393,000.

   In October 2019, Iowa’s Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy was awarded a federal COAP (Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program) grant in the amount of $1.7 million.

   A few months later, in 2020, the Jones County COAP Diversion Program began “as a resource for law enforcement in the Anamosa and Monticello Police Departments and the Sheriff’s Department to divert low-level offenders, if they meet the criteria, to the COAP Diversion Program and substance use treatment.”

   In a letter from the Jones County COAP Advisory Board to the Jones County Supervisors, it was noted that “diversion is always at the discretion of the involved law enforcement.”

   Since then, the program named has been expanded to Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulus, and other Substances Use Program (COSSUP).

   Participants enter the program in three ways: Pre-arrest diversion, post-arrest diversion, or community/self-referral.

   Since 2020, Jones County was awarded two extensions for this grant. The COAP funding is expected to conclude on Sept. 30, 2024.

   During the Aug. 20 Jones County Supervisors meeting, Sheriff Greg Graver, County Attorney Kristofer Lyons, and Lisa Bogran with ASAC proposed a way to extend the Diversion Program at no cost to taxpayers.

   “As we were getting toward the end of this grant program, we were trying to figure out how to continue the program, sustain funding, and offer the same services,” Graver said. “Law enforcement can use the program; the public can use the program. It’s kind of open to everybody.”

   The Jones County COAP Advisory Board came up with the idea of using the county’s opioid settlement funding, of which there’s roughly $140,000, to help fund an ASAC Care Navigator position to keep the diversion program running locally.

   “The coordinator (care navigator) would be responsible for responding to diversion referrals, completing intake assessments, providing on-going care coordination services, keeping records, and facilitating the Advisory Board meetings.”

   Graver explained that early on, Brad Knudson with Public Health was willing to be the liaison when it came to taking and collecting patient’s information for enrolling in the program and turning that over to ASAC, who then provides the treatment.

   “ASAC then approached us and said would we be interested in potentially funding a care coordinator position, which I was not familiar with,” continued Graver. “As we dove into that, it made sense at that point, although we were deeply appreciative of Brad for stepping up. It just made sense to us if ASAC is already the one providing the treatment, it would make sense to have ASAC in this care coordinator position in Jones County collecting the information and then turning it over for the service side. That’s kind of where this was born.”

   To help fund the Care Navigator position, the Advisory Board is asking for $20,000 annually from the county’s opioid funds. $14,000 would go to ASAC for the part-time position “and provide wrap-around services for potential substance use disorder patients in the Jones County Jail.” The remaining $6,000 would be set aside each year to help those who don’t have the ability to pay for treatment.

   “One thing that we wanted to make sure is those who are probably at highest risk, that money and the ability to pay does not prevent them from getting treatment,” Graver offered. “If they are not covered under insurance, there would be money available. ASAC has some grant funding that could also help with that. But if someone just doesn’t have the money to pay, that shouldn’t stop them if they want to go through the program. That money would pay for them to complete it. The hope is that we can support these people on beating the substance abuse, which, in turn, hopefully prevents them from these petty crimes that we consistently see.”

   “That $6,000 is not coming from the taxpayer; it’s coming from the opioid settlement money,” noted Lyons. “It’s an excellence use of it, making sure that if people don’t have insurance to cover it, they don’t have the ability to pay, that we have the ability to make sure they get the treatment they need so they don’t cause more problems.”

   The Care Navigator would see an hourly rate of $29.91, working an estimated 9 hours a week.

   Graver said this position would expand beyond substance use.

   “It looks like there would be the potential to utilize this care coordinator position for other things,” he said. “We have jail diversion, which is more for the mental health side, but being able to when we book someone, have questions that trigger ‘hey this person potentially has some kind of substance abuse disorder or issue, would it make sense to be able to provide some services to those people?’ Obviously, a lot of petty crime goes hand-in-hand with substance abuse. We are currently in the beginning stages of talking about what that looks like.”

   Graver said having someone provide these services in Jones County is a plus.

   Lyons agreed. He said for his job, having substance abuse evaluations completed quicker and in a more efficient manner makes all the difference.

   “Number one, we can’t get people sentenced,” he said. “Number two, we’re trying to revoke probations because they haven’t done the simple thing of getting their substance abuse evaluations done. That was one of the reasons that when ASAC came forward with this different type of position, we thought it actually makes a lot of sense because it lightens people’s sentence and there are fewer probation revocations. That means there are fewer warrants; that’s fewer people coming to jail. It just makes everybody’s job easier.

   “It allows for a service provider to be on the ground here in the county with our funds, rather than pooling funds and sending them to a bigger county to be used there,” continued Lyons. “It also continues the work we were doing with the grant, which is now going away.”

   The board of supervisors approved the use of opioid settlement money for the Care Navigator position.