LEONARDTOWN, MD (August 26, 2019) – The St. Mary’s County 2019 Opioid Crisis Response Plan is now available online. A variety of local partners, including the St. Mary’s County Health Department (SMCHD), law enforcement, treatment providers, and school system launched collaborative action to fight the local opioid epidemic in 2014. The first comprehensive local opioid response plan was developed for St. Mary’s in 2017, after Governor Larry Hogan declared Maryland’s opioid crisis a state of emergency.
The 2019 Opioid Response Plan builds upon the previous plan, outlining new strategies to address the opioid epidemic in addition to continuing efforts launched in prior years. The plan involves coordination between many local partners and expanding efforts to address a growing health crisis, including:
- Preventing new cases of misuse
- Improving early identification and intervention
- Expanding access to services
- Enhancing data collection, sharing and analysis
The St. Mary’s County Opioid Crisis Response Plan is a living document that will continue to be updated as additional response strategies are identified to help curb the epidemic at every stage of prevention and disease control.
SMCHD would like to thank the many partner organizations who have been involved in developing and implementing the Opioid Response Plan. The Plan is posted on the SMCHD website at http://www.smchd.org/opioid/
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