Together We Can! Healthy Living in Butte County - Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) Substance Abuse Scorecard

Why Is This Important?

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention have recently declared national epidemics for both prescription opioid and heroin overdoses - noting that prescription opioids have become a pathway to street heroin use over the past decade. These declarations are especially concerning for Butte County as our age-adjusted drug induced death rate is roughly 3 times as high as the state of California overall, ranking 54th out of 58 counties.

The CDC has developed evidenced based guidelines for prescribing opioids for chronic pain. These include instruction for when to initiate or continue opioids for chronic pain; opioid selection, dosage, follow up and discontinuation; and assessing risk and addressing harm of opioid use.

Partners

Enloe Medical Center, Aegis Treatment Center, Oroville Hospital, Orchard Hospital, Butte County Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force, Feather River Hospital, Butte County Public Health Department & Butte-Glenn Medical Society

Accomplishments To Date

• Thirteen safe-prescribing trainings were administered in 2015-16 for Butte County prescribing providers by Enloe Medical Center, Aegis Treatment Center, and the Butte-Glenn Medical Society.
• All four area hospitals have safe-prescribing policies in place that are currently being reviewed and compared to best practices.
• The Butte County Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force received a grant for $52,500 to implement objectives outlined in the CHIP and to develop additional objectives to promote safe-prescribing in Butte County. Specific goals include: increasing safe-prescribing standards throughout the county, providing educational activities for Butte County clinicians, and implementing public education and outreach activities.

Current Activities

• Safe prescribing guidelines, established by the CDC, are being developed for use at local ambulatory care physician groups.
  
• The Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force is developing a safe-prescribing curriculum with plans to conduct 30 academic detailing visits with physicians, dentists, and pharmacists within the next 2 years.

Why Is This Important?

In addition to Butte County’s elevated drug induced death rate relative to California overall, our local emergency department treatment and release rate was 33% higher for conditions related to alcohol, and 28% higher for other drugs of abuse, compared to the state. Studies have shown that prevention and intervention of substance misuse in early adolescence to young adulthood is effective for averting the development of substance-related and addictive disorders later in life.

The office of National Drug Control Policy recommends the use of life-skills training programs – as they use interactive techniques focused on critical thinking, communication and social competency. Developing and strengthening these skills during adolescence is protective against substance misuse and abuse.

Partners

Butte County Office of Education (BCOE), Skyway House, Oroville Church of the Nazarene, Butte County Behavioral Health, Butte Youth Now, Butte County Tobacco Coalition, Butte County Public Health Department, & Butte County Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force.

Accomplishments To Date

• The Minnesota Smoking Prevention Program was implemented for 6^th grade students, serving 649 students during the 2015-2016 school year.
• The Botvin Life-Skills Curriculum has been implemented in nine local school districts for 7^th and 8^th grade students, serving 348 students during the 2015-2016 school year.
• A Sport Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs (ATOD) Program has been implemented in 9^th grade PE classes, serving 955 students during the 2015-2016 School Year.

Current Activities

• Life-skills curricula are currently being implemented for grades 6^th - 9^th for the 2016-2017 school year.
• Since this is the second year for life-skills curricula in Butte County schools, more students will be served through booster curriculum available through the program.