Charleston County has added or strengthened more than a dozen government programs and partnerships since last year in an effort to help those struggling with opioid addiction. The effort is thanks to $1.7 million in funds the county has received since April 2023 as part of a $26 billion national opioid settlement.
In 2020, 180 people died in Charleston County due to fatal opioid overdoses. Beginning in 2021, the county coroner’s office began isolating unintentional deaths due to fentanyl overdose, and between 2021 and 2023, 462 people died after ingesting it — an average of 154 annually.
In 2023 alone, opioids killed 236 people in Charleston County, according to Chief Deputy County Coroner Brittney Martin.
County leaders are now focused on increasing awareness, education, prevention, treatment and recovery when tackling the opioid crisis, Charleston Center Director Chanda Funcell told the Charleston City Paper.
“We really wanted to focus on collective impact by expanding our harm reduction strategies,” she said. “Through all of that, we have accomplished tremendous things that I’m so excited to brag about.”
One of the biggest impacts the county has made, Funcell said, was beginning the implementation of sequential intercept model (SIM) mapping, which helps communities identify resources and gaps in services and develop local strategic action plans. The SIM maps will help to divert people with mental and substance use disorders away from the justice system into treatment.
“It’s designed to look at how a person moves through the system,” Funcell explained. “Community levels, crisis response, interaction with law enforcement, involvement with the criminal justice system, jail or specialty courts, parole and finally back into the community — what type of resources are available, and where do the gaps lie?”
In addition to the SIM mapping, the county strengthened personnel and increased services across several different areas in the Lowcountry. County leaders are currently working on developing a data dashboard to have some public-facing information on the issue on the county website.
New position offers big impact
Another major development made possible through the opioid settlement funds was the creation of an opioid initiative coordinator position for the county. The spot was filled in September 2023 by Sarah Halse, who previously served as the county’s prevention coordinator.
“This was an entirely newly created position to help better coordinate our efforts with the overdose crisis,” Halse said. “There are a lot of people already doing good work, but we’ve never had anyone really coordinating all of that work. There’s a lot of moving parts, and the hope was that this position could help that work to grow and ensure that we aren’t duplicating efforts.”
Halse said there has been noticeable change in the last year since the county began receiving the funds.
“Losing one person is one too many,” she said. “But it’s been a way more significant issue than many people realized. Every single illicit substance out there, we were finding fentanyl in it. … Now, I’m talking to more people who are understanding the scope of it, and that it’s not just specific to opioid users. It could be someone who is using another illicit substance, and they may not even realize it has fentanyl in it.”
One of the biggest impacts the new coordinator position offers is a connecting point for several partnering organizations and departments.
“We sit around the table with all these departments and the school district, too,” Halse said. “Having that face time and seeing what the county’s overall needs are is really important. … We’re working on a lot of different initiatives with the library, including putting emergency Narcan boxes in each location and offering Narcan training for public library employees.”
Reducing stigma, raising awareness
Community events and training programs have been a big part of the county’s opioid crisis efforts over the last year. From installing gravity-fed Narcan dispensing machines across the county to providing Narcan to all public school nurse infirmaries, county leaders want everyone to be within arms reach of someone who can save their life if needed.
“We have completed over 70 community outreach activities in the last year, reaching over 3,500 people,” Funcell said. “We have handed out over 6,000 brochures and more than 1,600 medication deactivation pouches,” or safe medication disposal kits.
The county has also distributed over 2,200 fentanyl and xylazine test strips (each) and 1,100 two-dose Narcan kits.
“We want to get as many people trained as possible and as many people comfortable carrying Narcan as possible,” Halse said.
And anybody can receive the training necessary to use these life-saving kits, she added. While the county doesn’t currently have a schedule for these events, anyone can reach out to Halse and coordinate a time, date and location to hold one. Whether it’s for a church group, a school staff or something else, Halse will answer the call.
“We’ll train anybody, and we modify our training depending on who we’re working with,” she said.
Those who want to schedule a training or other community event can reach out to Halse at shalse@charlestoncounty.org.
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