Approved Minutes of April 24, 2024

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MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH April 24, 2024 Vill. Educational Sessions A. Opioid Advisory Committee Update Ms. Stewart provided an update on the Opioid Advisory Committee's activities since mid-2022. Some highlights of her presentation are below: • Ms. Stewart mentioned that the last major update to the board on the Opioid Advisory Committee's activities had been in Fall 2022, though she had provided minor updates since then in her monthly Health Director's Reports. • In July of 2021, North Carolina was awarded $2613illion in funding to help provide relief for those affected by the opioid epidemic. During planning for the Opioid Settlement, Orange County Commissioner Sally Greene served on the 5-5-5 Committee, comprised of five county commissioners, five county managers, and five county attorneys from across the state. This committee was instrumental in deciding how to allocate the settlement funds. Orange County will be receiving over$12Million total in funding. • Ms. Stewart provided an overview of the funding allocation agreement, including a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for how the funds were to be spent and the requirements for reporting impact and outcomes. Another requirement is hosting an annual meeting to get feedback from community members. Ms. Stewart reminded the board that this year's annual meeting would take place on Saturday April 27'n • UNC and the OCHD already had an existing opioid task force prior to the settlement. The BOCC has formalized this task force into the Opioid Advisory Committee and now appoints the committee members. Based on community needs, the BOCC has added two additional at-large members to the committee, as well as a representative from the Department on Aging, as elderly people who use opioids were initially overlooked as a population. • The BOCC is also responsible for making the final decisions about how to use the settlement funds, including choosing between two plans for strategies: Option A, which is a set of twelve clear-cut mitigation strategies meant to help people who are in active use and addiction, and Option B, which is more abstract and focused on preventative strategies. Ms. Stewart shared that most NC counties have adopted Option A, though the commissioners retain the ability to change plans if they so choose. Dr. Royce asked how the BOCC decided which option to pursue, to which Ms. Stewart explained that they looked at the data and decided to focus on individuals in current use. Commissioner Fowler added that the BOCC selected Option A in part because it would be faster to initiate and gave the BOCC more initial control over spending, while Option B would have required significantly more time and community input to set up. • Ms. Stewart shared that the Opioid Advisory Committee met for the first time in January and that she is serving as interim coordinator, but they are hiring someone to take over this role. She added that so far, a major responsibility of the committee has been managing settlement payments but that there is a plan to begin an assessment of community needs and gaps. • While reviewing the settlement deposit history, Ms. Stewart explained that there are multiple waves of the settlement, as the Attorney General went after multiple companies and won. Mr. Bagby asked why two payments for the same amount were received on the same day and Ms. Stewart replied that this was a coincidence due to the payment schedules, and that the payments came from two different sources. • In response to Dr. Stuebe's question about a lack of payments from Purdue Pharmaceuticals, Ms. Stewart said she wasn't sure where their payments were, but she anticipated that they would show up soon. S:\Managers Working Files\BOH\Agendas &Abstracts\2024 Agenda and Abstracts/ April Page 4