The City of Bartlesville will use its portion of funds provided through Fiscal Year 2024 Opioid Abatement Grant Award Agreement to abate the effects of the opioid epidemic in Bartlesville, thanks to a vote of the City Council during a meeting held Monday.
The Council voted to accept a $120,000 payment administered by the State as part of the opioid abatement program and to use those funds to contract with GRAND Mental Health to provide two GRAND team members, who are Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialists.
The specialists will work with the Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Response Team team to build a rapport with unsheltered individuals affected by opioid use that will result in assisting them with receiving local services.
“The grant will provide $120,000 to be spent over a two-year period which will expand the existing Police CIRT teams that provide increased patrolling along Pathfinder Parkway by including outreach team members from GRAND,” said Police Chief Kevin Ickleberry.
The program is intended to identify and engage with individuals experiencing homelessness and opioid addiction, or those at risk of opioid addiction, with the goal of getting them into treatment, recovery, and long-term housing solutions, he said.
The program anticipates fifty individuals across Bartlesville will benefit over the two-year grant term, Ickleberry said.
Goals for the program include:
- Decrease opioid related homelessness in the City of Bartlesville by 25 percent
- Find appropriate treatment options for 90 percent of the individuals willing to receive treatment
- Make a minimum of 35 contacts per week with individuals that are living unhoused and using illicit substances
- Demonstrate an increase in community knowledge, skills, behaviors as measured by program effectiveness such as decreased police contact
Disaster funds available
The council also voted to approve the Disaster Assistance Agreement for Emergency and Major Disasters between the State of Oklahoma and the City of Bartlesville related to the severe storms, straight line winds, tornados and flooding that occurred between April 25 through May 9, 2024.
City staff are compiling information needed to complete the requirements for reimbursement for labor, equipment and other related costs resulting from debris clean-up caused by storms that occurred over the time period, including the May 6 tornado that struck the southwest and northeast areas of town.
The Police, Fire, and Public Works Departments are currently completing the damage inventories which will detail the actual costs of eligible expenditures incurred by the City. The agreement will provide a 75 percent reimbursement of those eligible expenditures.