WVU develops public policy model to address state’s opioid crisis

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. While solutions to the opioid crisis often involve either strengthening law enforcement or expanding the reach of health services, West Virginia University researchers said they believed the best approach was a synergistic mix of the two.

To illustrate what policies and strategies have been effective and generate ideas for combating the epidemic, they are setting out to collect data from all 55 counties and 233 municipalities in West Virginia.

What’s new about this project is that rather than having one conversation about health care and another about law enforcement, the policy data we have will bring those two sides together to determine the right mix, said Sam Workman , director of the WVU Institute for Policy Research. and public affairs at the John D. Jay Rockefeller School of Policy and Politics.

With funding from the National Science Foundation, the study focuses on two areas, supply and demand. On the supply side, law enforcement efforts are needed to reduce drug activity. The request focuses on health care and social services aimed at raising awareness of the pitfalls of substance use and providing emergency medical care and support to families.

Researchers will compare the amount of funds and other resources invested by local governments over the past decade in hopes of determining whether entities are moving in the right direction or need to change their plans. Although the study focuses on opioid use, health and criminal justice outcomes for most substance use problems will also be reflected in the report.

Workman, who is leading the study, said he expects to see differences in counties’ approaches based on geographic location.

If you’re a county that borders or has Interstate 79 running through it, you’re going to need a lot more on the law enforcement side, because those are the arteries through which drugs come in, Workman said. If you’re in a county far from the interstate, you may be better off spending money on emergency services and public health infrastructure.

Recognizing how to combine the two aspects to better serve the residents of each county is something Workman would like to see come together in public policy.

We can look at how counties spend money and be able to say that certain combinations of public investments are better than others at mitigating the effects of substance use, Workman said. What we want to be able to do is get to a point where they’re at least making those choices from an informed perspective.

Dr. Gordon Smith, the Stuart M. and Joyce N. Robbins Distinguished Professor in the WVU School of Public Health and assistant professor in the WVU School of Medicine, is a co-investigator on the project.

There is wide variation in drug overdose rates across counties and we hypothesize that this represents a natural experiment from which we can learn to better understand why some counties perform better than others, he said. he declares.

Workman and Smith will be assisted by James Nolan and Henry Brownstein of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, as well as researchers from the University of Minnesota and Binghamton University, University of New York State.

The research will be used to provide data-driven guidance on how policymakers can allocate resources to effectively address the opioid problem in their communities. Researchers will also consider factors such as policymakers’ preferences, the outcomes of health and safety budget decisions, and the adaptability of opioid networks in the face of policy changes.

This is part of the broader mission of the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs, Workman said. It is also part of the university’s land-grant mission in which we work on issues that improve the quality of life for the citizens of West Virginia.

Workman said a final report will be sent to the West Virginia Legislature, the West Virginia Municipal League and the West Virginia Association of Counties. Although local governments will have access to the documents through these entities, Workman and Smith plan to make presentations in local communities to help public officials compare ideas.

“I think we would like to get to a situation where local governments can learn from themselves over time, because they will know their own historical spending patterns, as well as those of their neighbors near and far,” Workman said . We often think of counties in a similar geographic space and facing similar problems, but counties can learn more from a distant county than from a nearby county. It just depends on the problems they are facing.