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The Deterra Project has been one of the greatest successes of Summit County Community Partnership (SCCP) in bringing the community together to prevent drug abuse. 140,392 Deterra® Drug Deactivation and Disposal System Pouches have been distributed over the project’s first four years, enough to safely destroy up to 5.5 million pills.
The Deterra Project began as a local effort to distribute Deterra to Summit County residents and promote safe disposal of unused medications. Over four years, the initiative has grown to include over 175 distribution sites in a seven-county region. More than 115 local non-profit, government and business partners distribute Deterra Pouches to the public, free of charge. Distribution partners include police officers, safe houses, hospice workers, the Cleveland Clinic, libraries, senior housing units, school nurses and pharmacies.
Partnering with retailers like Acme Fresh Market, a Northeast Ohio grocery chain with on-site pharmacies, to distribute Deterra has proven to be an effective way to prompt individuals to dispose of their unused opioids. Survey data collected as part of the Deterra Project shows 28% of people use the pouches to dispose of their unused opioid prescriptions. “For the long run, the best way that we can help people safely dispose is [distributing Deterra] through the pharmacies. No doubt about it,” says SCCP Executive Director, Darryl Brake. “As soon as you get your prescription, here’s your pouch.”
As part of the Deterra Project, 3,933 survey responses have been collected to help inform and measure SCCP’s prevention efforts. Ninety-nine percent of survey respondents said the pouch was easy to use, and 68% of respondents said the Deterra Pouch prompted them to clean out their medicine cabinets, compared to only 28% who regularly do so.
In 2016, Ohio had the second most deaths from opioid overdose in the country. SCCP Executive Director Darryl Brake was committed to finding evidence-based prevention techniques to reduce the risk of substance abuse in the communities of Summit County.
Brake attended a Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) conference where he was introduced to Deterra System. Recognizing the potential that Deterra had to impact communities struggling with addiction and overdose, he brought as many Deterra Pouches back to Summit County as he could.
Initially, a donation of 40,000 pouches from Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals followed. In conjunction with several community partners, SCCP created a plan – dubbed the Deterra Project – to distribute the pouches to critical populations, such as parents of school-aged children, post-surgery patients and families or individuals struggling with substance use disorder. With the help of over 40 community partners, SCCP distributed enough pouches to safely eliminate 1.3 million pills and 325,000 opiates in the first year of the Deterra Project.
To expand the project over the next two years, SCCP hosted fundraising activities, received donations from local foundations and applied for state and federal grants through the Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Through these various sources, SCCP secured funding to purchase and distribute over 21,000 pouches for the second year of the project and more than 47,000 for the third year.
The SafeRx Regional Collaborative was formed in the project’s second year to expand distribution to seven counties in Northeast Ohio that contain more than 25% of Ohio residents where over 100 million opioid doses are prescribed each year. Currently, efforts are underway to secure funding for the project to last five years to continue to reduce access to unused prescription opioids and create lasting change in the community.
“Our long-term goal is that we’re going to do this project for five years until we create sustainable behavior change in the community, so that people are expecting that they get a pouch with their prescription,” says Brake. “If not every prescription, their opioid prescription. And that as soon as they are done with their prescription, it is becoming commonplace that they are using the pouch to get rid of their prescriptions.”
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.
