photo by: Journal-World

The west side of the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.

Douglas County leaders this week could authorize a funding boost that would allow local social safety net nonprofit DCCCA to implement an integrated distribution project designed to enhance local access to the overdose-reversing drug naloxone.

At Wednesday’s Douglas County Commission meeting, commissioners will consider amending DCCCA’s community partner agreement for 2023 to add upward of $47,570 for the program.

It’s something of a course reversal from the last time commissioners heard from the nonprofit in early February, when agency representatives talked about the program DCCCA started in August 2020 to supply the drug — also commonly referred to by the brand name Narcan — to individuals and agencies in Douglas County and across Kansas.

At that time, DCCCA’s chief community-based services officer, Chrissy Mayer, said the supply of naloxone in Douglas County was stable and would likely remain so for the foreseeable future. But according to the agenda for this week’s meeting, the state of DCCCA’s naloxone supply seems vastly different from what it was about two months ago. Now, DCCCA says currently allocated funds won’t meet the projected demand for naloxone in the county or the state for the 2023 fiscal year.

DCCCA’s request for this week is intended to be used locally, though. A proposed implementation plan from DCCCA included with the meeting agenda calls for installing “ONEbox” units designed to improve public access to naloxone in 10 to 15 locations throughout the county, an idea DCCCA floated at that early February meeting. The boxes come outfitted with video instructions for administering naloxone and space for an opioid reversal kit. They’d be located at Lawrence, Eudora and Baldwin City’s public libraries and on each block of downtown Lawrence.

That portion would cost $15,250, according to DCCCA’s implementation plan. The cost breakdown calls for the boxes to be restocked twice per month, and it also includes training provided by DCCCA to staff at any locations where a ONEbox is placed.

Phase two clocks in at nearly double the cost, but also incorporates a larger supply of naloxone doses. That phase would involve installing naloxone vending machines, which could contain 54 to 150 doses of the drug, in strategic locations around the community. Those could cost upward of $32,320; more expensive models have a higher capacity, meaning they would also cost more to fully restock on a monthly basis.

The plan also identifies an additional two phases, one for targeted distribution at “hot spot” locations like the homeless shelter or upon release from jail or substance abuse treatment. The other phase calls for increased private-use access through the purchase of an estimated 1,500 additional naloxone kits on an annual basis.

Wednesday’s meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St. The meeting will also be available by Zoom. For meeting information, visit the county’s website: dgcoks.org/commissionmeetings.