Adair County gives $30K in opioid funds

The Adair County Supervisors unanimously approved giving Crossroads Behavioral Health $30,000 in opioid settlement funds for the work they plan to do to help further curb drug use in young people.

Crossroads’ Brittany Palmer and Jess Putter stated they plan to use the funds for a 10-session program for seventh graders. It will focus on social skills and other tools needed to help them overcome peer pressure.

A mental health therapist currently works in all three buildings of the Nodaway Valley Community School District and students are getting the help they need. Relationships and good conversations are relied upon to accomplish this goal. An added emphasis in this process will be developing a crisis plan and and communicating with school leaders, students, parents and staff.

These funds will fund both parts of this process.

Crossroads staff said that according to 2021 numbers, 22.8% of the population of Adair County is under 17 years old. They also use poverty rates and Medicaid enrollment rates to discover levels of risk of the area’s children.

The Iowa Youth Survey, completed in 2021, revealed that over half of students surveyed not only indicated they’ve had suicidal thoughts, they had made a suicide plan before.

John Twombly, a supervisor and a member of the regional mental health board, said that group’s research has recently shown that a much younger age is needed in reaching kids for drug use prevention and mental health topics. Crossroads plans to use their proposal as a starting point to eventually reach younger ages.

Studies have shown that students are six times more likely to engage in programs like these when they’re connected to the school day.

“Part of it is these programs are a multi-tiered thing that we’re trying to accomplish,” Palmer said. “These programs not only help with drug prevention, they also help with suicide prevention and mental health services to open the doors and help students get engaged at a younger age.”

Zion Recovery Services also recently met with the supervisors asking for a share of opioid settlement funds for similar purposes. Their hope was that Zion, Crossroads and Adair County Public Health could share available opioid settlement funds, as they all focus on a slightly different aspect of awareness and prevention.