PEABODY, MA — Peabody is looking to spend about $2.7 million in expected opioid lawsuit settlement funds over the next 17 years to create a new Division of Social Services to help the residents most affected by the devastation of substance abuse and mental health struggles.
The City Council Finance Subcommittee approved Mayor Ted Bettencourt’s proposal to establish the new municipal department under the guidance of Director of Health and Human Services Sharon Cameron. Healthy Peabody Collective Director Sara Grinnell will lead the department, which will include a reconstructed role for her, Sandi Drover as the youth outreach coordinator and the new positions of mental health abuse clinician, and behavioral health and substance abuse care coordinator.
“We really believe this would fit a need,” Bettencourt said. “It is, I believe, unprecedented that a city would create a division (like this). I know all cities and towns are trying to come up with their plans for the best way to utilize this (opioid settlement) money.
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“We believe this is the way to reach families, reach people in need, and get the services they need and demand. We believe this is the way to go.”
Grinnell said the goal of the new division is not to replicate services provided within the city and the region but to create a structure and some scholarship money to help residents access existing programs.
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“Anyone who has had a family member who has struggled with mental health or substance use issues knows how difficult it is to navigate that process and to see it through,” Grinnell said. “We want to provide that support to our residents and we want to use the funding from the companies that caused that damage to do so.”
Police Chief Thomas Griffin said mental health and substance abuse issues have long been known issues in the city and that the COVID-19 health crisis only exacerbated them. He said the department responded to 923 behavioral health calls and 84 overdoses over the past year — adding that he believes overdoses are being underreported with the increased access to Narcan.
“Hopefully, by applying this strategy, those numbers will go down and the overall health of the community will improve,” Griffin said. “The pandemic has really caused a lot of problems for a lot of people and it’s really starting to manifest itself out in the community.
“This division is a classic community policing problem-solving strategy that we’re going to deploy.”
The opioid settlement funding goes through 2039 but with limited parameters as to how cities and towns can use the payouts. Grants and some city funding would be used to supplement the expenses with settlement being the primary funding.
Grinnell said she hopes to make some of the scholarship funding for those seeking treatment without full insurance coverage available as soon as late this summer.
“Right now it’s difficult to access those services and we want to break down barriers for our residents,” Grinnell said.
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She said the timeline for establishing the division also involves hiring the mental health abuse clinician, and behavioral health and substance abuse care coordinator, by October and fully launching all aspects of the mission at the start of 2024.
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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