The Lake County Board of Commissioners approved $225,000 in settlement funding to nine applications to receive a portion of nearly $2 million in its first distribution of funding from the state in opioid lawsuit settlements on Wednesday.
The board received proposals in October from seven organizations. Tiffany’s House Recovery, Sounds of Sarah, Inc., Flourish Community Development Corp., Lake County Family Recovery Court, Regional Health Systems, Shine Recovery Café and Gary Harm Reduction all submitted proposals for $25,000 each, the maximum amount organizations could apply for, officials said.
The Lake County Family Recovery Court submitted proposals for three projects: the court’s CARE program, Road to Recovery and Keys to Recovery, said commissioner’s attorney Matthew Fech. The Lake County Family Recovery Court will receive $75,000 for the three projects.
The Flourish Community Development Corp. received $25,000 for its SHINE Youth Recovery Cafe; For the Love of Arts received $25,000 for its Shine Recovery Café; and Gary Harm Reduction received $25,000 for its harm reduction street outreach team.
Regional Health Systems received $25,000 for its psychoeducational groups in community corrections; Sounds of Sarah received $25,000 for its Link4Life program; and Tiffany House received $25,000 for its 180 recovery program.
Indiana was devastated by the opioid epidemic, according to a release from the Indiana Attorney General’s Office. From 2012 through 2016, there were 58 counties where opioid prescription rates were greater than 100 prescriptions per 100 residents, according to the release.
The state has received about $925 million from various pharmaceutical companies in settlements from lawsuits addressing the opioid crisis, according to the attorney general’s release.
Indiana received $508 million from the $26 billion national settlement with Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson; $59.4 million from the $3.1 billion national settlement with Walmart; $219 million in an agreement with CVS and Walgreens; $128 million from the $5.27 billion agreement with Allergan and Teva and $7.6 million from the $350 million national settlement with Publicis, according to the attorney general’s release.
Lake County has received $1.6 million in restricted funds and $380,000 in unrestricted funds from the state’s opioid settlement funds, Fech said.
The commissioners announced in August that they were seeking proposals from organizations “that can deliver innovative, evidence-based approaches to addressing substance use” in Lake County. The funds will go toward projects that address treatment, prevention, recovery support and harm reduction, according to a county press release.
Fech said the settlement steering committee, made up of judges, law enforcement, medical and health department officials, met in November to review the proposals. The committee recommended approving the nine projects that were proposed, he said.
With the remaining settlement funds, the commissioners will put out another request for proposals, likely by February or March 2025, for more projects to award money to, Fech said.
The next round of funding could go toward larger organizations or programs, Fech said.
Commissioner Michael Repay, D-Hammond, said he would like to see more of the money go toward the nonprofits and organizations that received the first round of funding.
“If we have good deliverables from some of these folks, we don’t want to end up with no money left for them to continue their work,” Repay said.
Sade Carrasquillo, with Shine Recovery, said she appreciated the board approving the funding as well as Repay’s comment about having more money for smaller organizations.
akukulka@post-trib.com
