The webinar, “Understanding the Opioid Settlement Funding: What it Means for Community-Based Work,” discusses the money that is being distributed to states from opioid settlements resulting from recent lawsuits. [View the video.]

Presented by Glenn Sterner, assistant professor of criminal justice at Penn State and affiliate faculty member of the Prevention Research Center, the webinar covers 4 major components:

• an opioid settlement process overview
• state-level information about the settlements
• resources on how to conceptualize funds so that their impact is maximized
• the implications for community-based work

Sterner, who advised the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General while developing Pennsylvania’s settlement allocation process, said the second wave of lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies involved with the opioid crisis is ongoing, and wave one’s funding is already on its way into communities. Wave one’s settlement lawsuits resulted in judgments totaling $26 billion. Funds are allocated to states based on a formula that takes into account factors like overdose deaths, the amount of opioids dispensed in that state, prevalence of pain reliever use disorder, and state population. Each state varies in where their funds can be allocated, but roughly 85% of Pennsylvania’s money will go directly to the counties and communities.

“This is the first time in the opioid crisis that we have the opportunity to pause, ask questions around what is it that we’ve been doing, where do we currently stand, and where do we want to go into the future?”

– Glenn Sterner, assistant professor of criminal justice at Penn State Abington

Overall, Sterner stressed the opportunity that these settlements provide, saying, “This is the first time in the opioid crisis that we have the opportunity to pause, ask questions around what is it that we’ve been doing, where do we currently stand, and where do we want to go into the future?” He emphasized the importance of maximizing the impact of these funds.

For community-based workers, this means understanding the structures of distribution and oversight of funding for your state, connecting with stakeholders, advocating for evidence-based practice, knowing how your state can use funding, and developing an evaluation plan to monitor fidelity and any need for change.

Sterner outlined some resources available that include aid on both the state level and community level. These include:

• Johns Hopkins’ 5 Guiding Principles, which offer conceptual frameworks of thinking to help maximize the use of these funds
• Brandeis Opioid Resource Connector, which helps connect people with strategies best fit for their individual communities
• Sterner also identified North Carolina as one of the country’s leaders in thinking about how they can maximize the use of these funds. View their resources and strategies here.

This webinar is one in a series created by the REACH (Resilient, Engaged & Active Community Health) project, which provides support and resources to rural communities and stakeholders in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia to address substance misuse disorder and mental health disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery. A central part of the project is a series of monthly live webinars focused on the needs of our rural communities and stakeholders in our region. It was produced by the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center as part of the Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Regional (ROTA-R) initiative, grant #1H79TI085603-01, supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

For more information about REACH, contact project coordinator Melissa Tomascik at mot101@psu.edu.