(ESCAMBIA COUNTY, F.L.) --- The Opioid Abatement Funding Advisory Board has an obligated amount of $6,379,095, with some of that money going to the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Core teams, along with other funding awardees noted in August.
According to officials, this funding period is worth $ 1,854,560, minus the EMS Core $829,000. The board works with the Opioid Task Force, reviewing data and finance recommendations. Escambia County Emergency Management Supervisor Travis Tompkins told officials the agency is “expecting to take possession” of an anticipated mobile van in November.
“ We have already received our Zoll's Zenix monitor, which is for the inside of the truck that'll be used for vital signs, EKGs,” Tompkins said. “And with everything else, we're still going strong.”
The most significant report was “a significant decline in overdoses in Escambia County, according to Tompkins, who said, “year to date, we're over four hundred and fifty versus last year at seventeen hundred.”
Photo: Escambia County Emergency Management Supervisor Travis Tompkins
“So this community and the work that everybody's doing has definitely made a dent,” Tompkins said.
Awardee Offentsive Brad Bishop’s report was not as positive regarding xylazine and metatomidine.
“What we're talking about is veterinarian tranquilizers,” Bishop said of the sedatives intended to increase fentanyl levels. “So adding these tranquilizers extends the half -life in theory.”
The stark side effects reveal the danger, according ot Bishop, who said wounds often appear as if “an alligator took a bite out of somebody's limb.” That is why Bishop wrote legislation to track the dangerous sedatives.
“A little over a month ago, these were illegal, and I wrote a bill that was sponsored by Rep Salzman and Senator Gates and signed into law July 1 that decriminalized these, so now we can detect this in our supply before it shows up in the medical,” Bishop said.
Other awardees, up to funding availability, also include Health and Hope, Hope Above Fear, Ministry Village, REAP, Lakeview AIM, and the YMCA.
The next Escambia County Opioid Abatement Funding Advisory Board will be October 12 at 10 a.m. at 221 Palafox Place, First Floor, Board Chambers.
0
0
Comments