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Despite having a population of less than 45,000 residents, rural Douglas County, Wis., has consistently had one of the highest rates of opioid overdoses in the state.
In a survey conducted by the Douglas County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), residents cited substance misuse as the #1 health issue facing their community.
“It’s an immense issue. We need innovative ways to raise awareness and expand our prevention offerings to reduce misuse and overdoses,” says DHHS Deputy Director Dave Longsdorf. “For every dollar invested in prevention, we get much more back in savings on treatment and recovery.”
To help educate the community about the risks of unused opioids and encourage residents to clean out their medicine cabinets, DHHS launched a prevention initiative to mail educational resources and the Deterra® Drug Deactivation and Disposal System directly to local households.
“It’s a first for us and a model for other counties on how to quickly get prevention tools into everyone’s hands,” says Longsdorf. “Neighboring counties in Wisconsin and other states have approached us about our efforts and how to implement household mailings in their areas.”
DHHS was already funding prevention efforts through a Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Services block grant (SABG) and wanted to broaden their scope.
“We initially thought about doing a community distribution of Deterra Pouches, but then we learned about the home mailing option,” says Longsdorf.
A household mailing is much more cost-effective than community distribution: it’s easy to implement, makes an immediate impact and saves on administrative costs like staff time, storage, and event management.
DHHS worked with Deterra to create educational postcards to include with the 22,000 Deterra Pouches mailed to households in Douglas County. The campaign aimed to raise awareness about the importance of proper drug disposal and provide an immediate way for residents to clean out their medicine cabinets.
The county’s household mailing campaign provided at-home drug deactivation and disposal pouches and educational materials directly to 22,000 households. The initiative is part of several major efforts to increase access to prevention resources countywide.
Additional cases of Deterra were purchased for community distribution via the DHHS office, Superior Police Department, and public events. The county has also added a new sharps collection location.
In addition to prevention, Longsdorf hopes that having Deterra available can make a difference for individuals in recovery.
“I’ve had 30 years in this field and when people are ready for recovery, you have to make sure the resources are there in the moment,” he says. “If people are on the fence, we hope they use the Deterra Pouch as a first step for prevention or recovery.”
Visit DeterraSystem.com/government to explore how other organizations are using Deterra or reach out to (612) 568-1128 or Sales@DeterraSystem.com to discuss how to implement at-home drug disposal initiatives in your community.
