Public Health receives grant to reduce overdose harm
The County of Santa Clara Public Health Department has been awarded $11,125,000 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to work with health systems and community partners on drug overdose prevention.
Activities will include:
• Get more and better data on the problem, and use it in program activities
• Ensure clinicians and health systems adopt best practices for opioid prescribing, overdose prevention and substance use treatment
• Provide harm reduction supplies and education to prevent complications of substance use
• Enhance public awareness and reduce stigma
• Connect people to treatment and help them stay in treatment
“Santa Clara Valley Healthcare is committed to decreasing the mortality rates associated with opioid use and will continue improving best practices that will provide better care and treatment for patients entering our healthcare system,” said Paul E. Lorenz, chief executive officer for Santa Clara Valley Healthcare.
Deaths in Santa Clara County due to opioid overdose have more than tripled, from 61 in 2018 to 195 in 2022, according to data from the County of Santa Clara Medical Examiner-Coroner. Of the 420 drug-related overdose deaths in 2022, nearly 87% were from opioids, methamphetamine, or a combination of both.
In line with a focus on health equity, Public Health and partners will use grant funding to support the following populations:
• Communities of color, particularly African/African ancestry and Latinx communities, that experience higher rates of overdose deaths
• People experiencing homelessness
• Individuals with both mental health and substance use disorders
• Individuals recently released from incarceration
• People who use drugs, particularly those with a past overdose
The grant comes from the CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control for Overdose Data to Action: Limiting Overdose through Collaborative Actions in Localities, for the period of Sept. 1, 2023 to Aug. 31, 2028.
Public Health is partnering with the following: Balanced Imperfection, Bay Area Community Health, Behavioral Health Services Department, Bright Heart Health, California Bridge Program, California Department of Health Care Services, California Department of Public Health, Community Health Partnership, Custody Health Services, Emergency Medical Services, Santa Clara Valley Healthcare and Valley Homeless Healthcare Program.
Santa Clara Valley Healthcare opens tuberculosis clinic
Santa Clara Valley Healthcare hosted a ribbon cutting on Aug. 30 for its new Valley Health Center (VHC) Lundy primary care clinic. VHC Lundy will be the new home for the Tuberculosis Clinic & Refugee Health Assessment Program.
The new facility comes at a time as Santa Clara County faces the third highest case rate for tuberculosis (TB) among California jurisdictions, while also welcoming the highest numbers of refugees in the state, according to County health officials.
VHC Lundy is located at 1996 Lundy Ave. in East San Jose.
The only such clinic and program of its kind in the county, VHC Lundy provides evaluation and treatment of active TB disease and preventive therapy for latent TB infections (LTBI). The new clinic also delivers comprehensive health assessments and medical treatment specifically designed for refugees, asylees, humanitarian parolees, special immigrant visa holders and victims of human trafficking who seek treatment in the county.
“The assessment program housed at the new site will now have its own space, a place that provides care and counseling for County families; folks who are often using the program as their first entry point into our healthcare system,” said County Supervisor Joe Simitian, chair of the County Health and Hospital Committee. “We’re really working to provide a warm environment, a safe space, to help these families navigate our healthcare system.”
Federal law requires new refugee arrivals to be screened for communicable diseases, including viral hepatitis, parasitic infections and tuberculosis, as well as chronic health conditions. In addition to the screenings, the Refugee Health Assessment Program also provides the following:
• Primary care services
• Referrals to specialty care services and urgent care as needed
• Required immigration vaccinations
• Mental health assessments and referrals to counseling and mental health services for adult patients through a partnership with the Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI)/Center for Survivors of Torture (CST).
The new clinic is the only outpatient setting specializing in TB in the county, providing care to more than 60% of all active cases locally, according to county officials. The existing clinic treats up to 100 patients each day, on average. More than 50% of the clinic staff are certified interpreters in a second language, and many were also refugees themselves.
LTBI services are now available in the following locations: VHC Downtown, VHC Gilroy, VHC San Jose, VHC Milpitas and Vietnamese American Services Center Clinic.
Supes fund school-based wellness centers
A $12 million grant program to create and expand school-based behavioral health wellness centers in Santa Clara County was approved Aug. 29 by the county Board of Supervisors.
Most of the grant money will be awarded to school districts to help establish new campus wellness centers composed of a small team that will include a credentialed behavioral health professional such as a therapist, counselor or clinical social worker. Some funding will also be available to expand existing wellness centers and invest in facility and technology improvements.
The county had more than 30 school districts serving over 240,000 students as of the 2021-2022 school year, according to the county’s Office of Education.
The expansion of school-based behavioral health wellness centers was first proposed by Supervisor Susan Ellenberg in 2019. A county report on recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2022 suggested implementing the plan with grant money available from both the state and the federal government.
The program will be bolstered by $2 million from the county probation department that is earmarked for juvenile justice initiatives. The other $10 million is funded from the American Rescue Plan Act and the state’s Mental Health Services Act, which was passed as Proposition 63 by California voters in 2004 and levies a 1% income tax on residents making more than $1 million annually.
Ellenberg said it had been a goal of hers since joining the Board of Supervisors in 2019 to identify ways the county could better intervene and treat behavioral and mental health in teenagers, before the Covid-19 pandemic brought that same issue to the attention at many levels of government.
She said that mental health struggles were not new for teenagers, but that the pandemic magnified and expanded the need for solutions. She said young people began talking about mental health issues more freely during the pandemic.
“It went a long way towards reducing stigma around mental health,” Ellenberg said. “Students became more open during that time.”
The grant program is being implemented by the nonprofit community health care provider Valley Health Foundation, formerly known as Valley Medical Center Foundation. The program is funded through the 2026-2027 school year. Applications will open in September and the centers would be operational the following school year.
Continuing funding is expected to partially come from Medi-Cal and commercial insurance payments required under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health, which will require more insurance coverage of mental health services.
About two-thirds of California youths who experience depression do not receive treatment, according to the governor’s office.
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