TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun is discussing his administration’s decision to use opioid settlement funds for a second social worker for the Terre Haute Police Department.
The mayor made that announcement this week during his City Update address to the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce.
The mayor says Vigo County is already funding the Mental Health Initiative Grant for the Vigo County School Corporation and other government agencies are already funding local recovery centers.
That’s why the mayor decided to use the settlement money to expand the THPD Social Worker Program.
“We now have a specific program that we can use, the Social Worker Program, for crisis intervention, smaller domestic disputes, obviously, addressing the homeless population,” explains Sakbun. “And, when you see the referral rate, 54% of individuals that our social worker comes in contact with, they go onto receive treatment for some of the issues they have. That’s a powerful statistic and, any chance to increase that number even more, we’ve got to take. I mean, it saves us financially in the long run, but it’s also the empathetic thing to do.”
The mayor says he is excited to roll out more details of the program’s expansion in the near future.
Settlement money is being distributed to communities across the country to help stem the decades-long opioid addiction and overdose epidemic. Opioids have been linked to about 800,000 deaths in the U.S. since 1999, including more than 80,000 annually in recent years, with most of those involving illicitly produced fentanyl, according to the Associated Press.
Drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies have been involved in more than 100 settlements of opioid-related lawsuits with state, local and Native American tribal governments over the past decade.
