Towns Seek Collaborative Approach On Opioid Abatement; Five-Town Planning Committee To Be Formed

ORLEANS – Communities across Cape Cod have been receiving opioid abatement funding since 2022, the result of a class action lawsuit filed against opioid manufacturers and distributors by then-Attorney General Maura Healey, But the disparity as to how much each town gets in their annual appropriations has left some towns with more than others. 

 Now Orleans plans to pool its abatement funding together with that awarded to Chatham, Harwich, Brewster and Dennis to see how the five towns can better address the issue of opioid abuse disorder collectively.

 Alex Fitch, Orleans’ director of health and human services, told the select board July 1 that an opioid strategic planning committee is in the works, with representation from each of the five participating towns. She said a charter also will be established outlining the roles and responsibilities of each community.

 “For the five towns participating in this project, it was really about acknowledging that we can do a lot more together than we can separately,” she said. 

 Healey first filed a class action suit against Purdue Pharmaceuticals, one of the nation’s top manufacturers of prescription opioids, in 2018. Suit was later brought against a number of other companies including Johnson and Johnson, Walmart and Walgreens.

 Communities on Cape Cod first began receiving abatement payments in 2022. Fitch said there is a national formula that dictates how much abatement funding each town receives. Figures presented at the July 1 meeting showed that as of November, Orleans has received $107,957; Harwich $388,415; Chatham $235,609 and Brewster $179,568.

 “So it’s this apparent lopsided distribution that is incentivizing municipalities to pool their funds,” Fitch said.

 Figures presented also show disparities in how each town is utilizing its funding. On the high end, Harwich has spent $131,620 of its funding to date. Brewster, meanwhile, has not spent any of its abatement money.

 In total, it is estimated that the five towns will collectively receive about $2 million in abatement funds through the year 2038. Fitch said that does not include additional funds that could be coming through another class action lawsuit.

 A regional needs assessment was conducted with help of Crescendo Consulting Group to help the towns chart a more collaborative path in spending their collected abatement funds. CCG held listening sessions in each of the five towns, conducted surveys and held prioritization sessions to get input on how each town wants to see its funding spent.

 The assessment identified a number of needs. Topping the list was youth opioid use prevention, followed by an expressed need for harm reduction services and better continuum of care for people coming out of treatment or incarceration.

 Other issues identified in the assessment include the region’s lack of in-patient treatment options, sober houses and transportation; a lack of mental health services; the need for social workers; the availability of the overdose reversal medication Narcan; and the need for more community education around opioid abuse disorder.

 “I read the list of things that people needed, and it was heartbreaking because it was so inclusive,” said Mary Wright of the select board. “It was soup to nuts, what was required.”

 A tentative timeline calls for the establishment of the new planning committee, followed by the collection of additional data and another public workshop. A final strategic plan would then be submitted to the select boards and boards of health in each town for review when ready.

 Select Board Chair Mefford Runyon pointed out mental health as something that particularly needs addressing through the plan.

 “A lot of people go town to town and they use services in different towns,” Fitch said. “And if we pool our money, I think we’d be able to tackle the lack of mental health resources on a much larger scale, certainly.”

 Wright and fellow board member Kevin Galligan also recommended that the towns reach out to agencies including the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office and the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office, both of which they said have been focusing on the issue of continuum of care. Fitch said those and other “stakeholders” in the region will be engaged as part of the process.

 “Because the truth of the matter is in the local health departments, we do not do that work. We’re not seeing it everyday, so we need their perspective,” she said.