WASHBURN COUNTY -- Washburn County Health & Human Services was one of sixty-five applicants in Wisconsin to receive grant funds from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to strengthen public health preparedness and response around the ongoing opioid epidemic.
The projects are funded through the Cooperative Agreement for Emergency Response: Public Health Crisis Response grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
These projects promote and support activities that prevent prescription and non-prescription opioid overuse, misuse, abuse, and overdose, and are part of a coordinated response to the public health crisis that is the opioid overdose epidemic in Wisconsin.
Washburn County is using grant funds to develop evidence-based opioid education curricula targeting both the 12-18 age group and the 55+ age group. “Because most of Washburn County’s opioid prescriptions are for the 55+ group, this grant will allow for targeted education to prevent misuse of these prescriptions”, said Cheri Nickell, Washburn County Health Officer. “We are very pleased to receive this grant to expand county-wide efforts to prevent youth from abusing opioids by using evidence-based education. It takes as little as ten days for your brain to become addicted to opioids – we need to teach our students to keep themselves safe.”
Last Update: Dec 07, 2018 10:14 am CST
