Opioid Settlement Funds
The opioid overdose epidemic is one of the most significant challenges facing the United States of America. Nearly 645,000 people have died from opioid overdoses from 1999-2021, and fatalities continue to surge, with overdoses involving opioids leading to more than 80,000 deaths in 2021.
In 2021, Massachusetts reached settlement agreements with several pharmaceutical companies regarding their role in enabling the overdose epidemic. The Commonwealth will be allocating 40% of these settlement funds to communities annually between now and 2038 to strengthen opioid response, recovery, and prevention measures. Massachusetts expects to receive $1 billion as more settlements are concluded.
Swampscott has received approximately $226,000 to date and anticipates receiving additional funds from the settlement agreement over the next 15 years, pending the outcome of ongoing negotiations.
The Swampscott Health Department has made a commitment to using municipal opioid settlement funds to supplement and strengthen resources available to community members. As the Health Department assesses what areas to prioritize, we want to ensure that the community is involved in the planning process and assists with setting broad goals that maximize the funding’s impact.
As community members, your input is essential for deciding how to spend the opioid settlement funds. The opioid overdose epidemic continues to affect individuals living with opioid use disorder and their loved ones, social service organizations, health providers, and our community as a whole. It is essential for community voices to guide the town's response.
Our goal is to address disparities in existing opioid treatment/support services, improve the community’s response to the opioid overdose epidemic, and reduce the harms caused by stigma associated with opioid use disorder.
Based on state regulations, settlement funds can ONLY be allocated toward:
- Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
- Support for People in Treatment and Recovery
- Connections to Care
- Harm Reduction
- Address the Needs of Criminal-Justice-Involved Persons
- Support Pregnant or Parenting Women and Their Families Including Babies with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
- Prevent Misuse of Opioids and Implement Prevention Education
A detailed description of each category can be found at this link: https://shorturl.at/deoC4
Please note that funding can supplement but not sustain large projects due to funding limitations. Community feedback will be a factor in guiding decision-making on opioid settlement agreement funds as the Health Department works on long-term policy.
From 11/13/23-12/4/23, the Swampscott Health Department asked community members for their input on how best to spend the Opioid Settlement Funds through a survey and received 195 responses! After gathering and compiling the responses from the Opioid Settlement Funds Survey, the Swampscott Health Department presented these results and findings at the Swampscott Board of Health meeting on January 17th, 2024 and the survey results can be found here: https://www.swampscottma.gov/health/pages/opioid-settlement-funds-survey-results
On January 31st, 2024, the Swampscott Health Department held a listening session with community members to provide a brief review of the survey results and so that the Health Department could hear from community members about how best to use the Opioid Settlement funds here in Swampscott.
Starting in February, 2024, a ‘Lived Experience’ Working Group was formed to help the Health Department with how best to utilize these funds. Our ‘Lived Experience’ working group has determined that there will be two focus areas and that mental health being a sub-focus area for both.
- Focus Area 1: Prevention/Education – in the schools and in the community.
- Focus Area 2: Recovery and Community Supports (ex. Harm Reduction, Narcan Distribution, etc.)
If you have additional comments and/or feedback, please feel free to contact us at:
- Neia Illingworth - nillingworth@swampscottma.gov
- Jeff Vaughan - jvaughan@swampscottma.gov
As we continue this important work, please continue to check our website often for additional updates, information, resources, etc.!