Williamson County Combats Opioid Epidemic With Pilot Project

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX — A grant-funded effort in Williamson County aims to curb the scourge of opioid use in the region, officials said on Friday.

In fighting the epidemic, officials said, Williamson County’s Mobile Outreach Team (MOT) partnered with Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Round Rock Fire Department for an Opioid Emergency Response Pilot Project. For the first year of the pilot program, Texas Health and Human Services provided a $1.5 million grant to prevent opioid overdose death and increase access to opioid treatment and recovery services.

Grim statistics speak to the need for the initiative: Overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, county officials noted. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 192 drug overdose deaths every day, with 67.8 percent of those resulting from opioid overdose. The problem has reached such proportions, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2017 declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency.

To combat the opioid wave regionally, the pilot program was operated initially through the Round Rock Fire Department’s Community Risk Reduction Program, county officials said. They added that this year, the program will be run directly through Williamson County MOT, a division of EMS. The grant for the current year is $500,000.

WilCo officials described the effort's elements, saying it utilizes a multi-prong approach. The first component is to provide overdose prevention education and naloxone, the opioid overdose rescue drug, to patients, family, friends, supportive allies, and first responders. Education includes how to recognize and respond to an overdose event and how to provide overdose reversal medication. The second part is to help the patient with recovery. That can include matching the patient to appropriate treatment, such as Medication Assisted Treatment, and providing the patient with a peer coach, who uses his or her personal experience to help guide those working to stay off opioids.

Despite its nascent status, the county effort has proved effective. In the program summary given during the Commissioners Court meeting on Oct. 1, Annie Burwell, Williamson County MOT director, reported the program had successfully prevented 25 deaths with 95 high-risk patients currently in the recovery program. County officials said the team of three MOT paramedics and one peer recovery coach have distributed 17,000 doses of naloxone to more than 100 different agencies and taught 53 overdose rescue classes to the general public, community agencies, and first responders.

“This program is one of the most important programs that we operate in Williamson County,” County Judge Bill Gravell said in a prepared statement. “Prescription opioids can be addictive and dangerous. One death from an opioid overdose is one too many.”

It's been said imitation is the best form of flattery, and the adage applies to the pilot program. According to county officials the Opioid Emergency Response Pilot Project has been so successful that nine other EMS programs in Texas have started similar programs.