Skip to main content

County awards first opioid prevention grants

Opioid funding, steele county
By
Joni Hubred, Editor

Steele County officials have chosen the first three proposals designed to help communities heal the damage from and fight addiction to opioid painkillers.

The county started receiving payments in 2023 for its share–$1.5 million–of funds from agreements with major opioid manufacturers and distributors. Even though the county has few recorded overdoses and even fewer deaths, surveys show about a quarter of residents have had “personal lived experience” with the opioid crisis.

What’s more, in a 2022 student survey, nearly 6% of Steele County 8th, 9th, and 11th graders reported abusing prescription pain medications, and 15% didn't think people who abuse pain medications are endangering their health.

A United Way of Steele County initiative is designed to reach those young people. The agency was awarded $29,000 to conduct Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) trainings in schools.

President Annette Duncan said Youth Mental Health First Aid training started Monday for paraprofessionals at Owatonna High School. Eventually, at least one student group in each high school will be trained in teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA).

“Mental health is one of the priorities we identified several years ago,” Duncan said. “We have an opioid response team and a mental health response team that have been working for four years.”

When the county released its request for proposals, she said, “there was a component hyper-focused on mental health. Because we are very strong in that area, we decided that was the direction we would take to positively impact the opioid crisis.”

Also, she said, Owatonna Public Schools had already reached out asking United Way to provide mental health training for paraprofessionals. Duncan is a facilitator and can work with up to 30 people at a time. However, she said, the curriculum is expensive.

“This grant really gives us the opportunity to say yes,” she said.

Once enough adults are trained, the teen training can begin. The programs, Duncan said, “go hand in hand.” There will be a system developed for each school that helps students easily identify the trained adults who’ll support them.

The goal, Duncan said, is to provide teens with tools and observational skills to spot peers who might be struggling with mental health issues.

“The hope is that we can help alleviate a mental health challenge from becoming a mental health crisis,” she said. Students will learn how to provide assistance until their schoolmate can get professional help.

Spero (formerly South Central Human Relations Center) will receive $32,000 to implement several projects, most also aimed at young people:

  • Delivering an evidence-based program, What Teens Need to Know, in schools and community settings to prevent youth substance use.
  • Developing a screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) program, Teen Intervene, to provide education, support, and guidance for teens and their parents to avoid using substances.
  • Conducting school and community presentations to reduce stigma around mental health and substance use.
  • Implementing Zero Overdose strategies into programs and policies to prevent unintentional overdoses through safety planning and education.
  • Providing resources, promotional items, and other materials to educate the community about drug disposal and destruction, emergency responses to overdoses, mental health promotion, and substance use prevention.

The third award went to the Steele County Sheriff’s Department, which will use the $6,500 to install three secure drug disposal boxes at:

  • Blooming Prairie Police Department (138 Highway Ave. S.)
  • Owatonna Police Department (204 E Pearl St.)
  • Steele County Law Enforcement Center (2500 Alexander St. SW, Owatonna)

Two of three replace existing containers. The more secure boxes will prevent individuals from reaching in to retrieve the disposed medications. The project also includes collaboration with local partners to create and distribute educational materials about the safe disposal of expired and unused medications.

County Public Health Specialist Ethan Rindfleisch explained that all applications were evaluated by a panel of trained experts from Steele County’s Opioid Settlement Advisory Team, composed of professionals in the substance use prevention field, including representatives from MNPrairie County Alliance, South Country Health Alliance, and Steele County Public Health.

After individually scoring proposals, the team determined award amounts.

“The scoring rubric assessed several factors, such as the organization’s capacity to implement their project, alignment with priorities identified in the community opioid funding prioritization survey, an emphasis on collaborating with partners to address unmet needs, and a well-developed workplan with measurable goals and sustainable, long-term impacts,” he said.

County commissioners approved a ceiling of $100,000 for programs in 2025. 

Rindfleisch said Public Health staff will do quarterly check-ins with recipients. Annual reports  detailing the use of funds and project outcomes will be presented to the county board in early 2026.

“Additionally, Steele County Public Health is required to report on the use of funds to the Minnesota Department of Human Services by March 31 each year. Any projects receiving $25,000 or more must report on the qualitative success or challenges encountered and provide data on at least one self-defined process measure (addressing the question 'How much did we do?') and one self-defined quality or outcome measure (addressing the questions 'How well did we deliver it?' or 'What difference it make?'),” he wrote in an email.

To learn more about Steele County’s opioid response, visit steelecountymn.gov/public_health/opioid_response_initiative.php

Sign up for News Alerts

Subscribe to news updates