(DES MOINES, Iowa) – To help address the issue of opioid misuse, the Iowa Department of Health of Human Services (HHS) is expanding their initiative to provide naloxone (the opioid overdose reversal medication) to Iowa organizations, businesses and schools, which may be in a position to render aid to a person at risk of experiencing an opioid overdose. Since February of 2022, HHS has offered eligible organizations and businesses free naloxone nasal spray kits. Now, the program is expanding to include schools. The purpose of this initiative is to equip organizations, businesses and schools, in the event that their employees, agents, or volunteers encounter someone experiencing a suspected opioid overdose.

While the hope is there would never be a need for the use of naloxone, having this medication available as part of a first-aid response could save someone’s life. Eligible organizations, businesses and schools, include but are not limited to: retail/convenience stores; libraries; public or nonpublic schools, community colleges, colleges, universities; restaurants; bars; community or social services organizations; event venues; and mobile service providers.

Click here to view eligibility information and program requirements.

HHS’ State Opioid Response office was recently awarded $9,083,075 per year for two years to provide treatment and recovery programs for an estimated 1,100 people. In addition, the program will provide prevention and harm reduction services to more than 11,000 people.

Although Iowa is considered a low-incidence state compared to many others, the increases in opioid- related deaths are concerning, with 258 official records of opioid-related deaths in Iowa for 2021, up from 157 deaths in 2019 and 213 deaths in 2020. Synthetic opioids, such as illicit versions of fentanyl, are now involved in the vast majority of opioid-related deaths in Iowa, and have increased in all age groups. Increasing instances of these synthetics being detected in combination with other drugs such as stimulants, indicate that some people who think they are taking something other than an opioid are also dying due to contamination of those substances with illicit fentanyl.

The recently announced award comes as a follow-up to previous opioid grants and will allow for continuation and expansion of the prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts in the state. The free naloxone program in combination with training available around the state from local grantee organizations ensures that more Iowans have access to this life saving medicine.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – One person suffered from lacerations, following an accident southwest of Atlantic, this (Wednesday) morning. The Cass County Communications Center dispatched Cass EMS to the scene near 58882 Whitepole Road, at around 6:35-a.m., where a vehicle apparently crashed through a gate or fence. After Deputies arrived, they determined that a 2016 Jeep Cherokee left White Pole Road north of a residence, went through a fence and a bean field, before striking machinery in the yard of the residence.

The injured party was transported to Cass County Memorial Hospital and later transported by helicopter to a hospital in Omaha. Additional details are currently not available.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – In an update to our report on Tuesday, Republican Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, from Red Oak, has announced that the proceeds from her annual Roast and Ride fundraiser on October 22nd, will go toward a fundraiser set up in honor of a fallen Midwest Marine. Twenty-three-year-old Cpl. Daegan Page, who grew up in Ernst’s hometown of Red Oak, was one of 13 U.S. service members killed during an Aug. 26, 2021, bombing at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. The attack came as thousands of people tried to evacuate the region before the Taliban took over the country. Family members set up the Corporal Daegan Page Foundation in his honor.

Daegan Page. (Photo from the FB memorial page.)

The Roast and Ride event will take place at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased HERE. The link also has more information about the Oct. 22nd event.

(Radio Iowa) – Eleven organizations in central Iowa have put together a pilot project for what’s called a basic income plan. The Director of Principal Foundation, Jo Christine Miles, says they will provide 500 dollars each month to participants. “Folks who we know are tending to struggle to make ends meet. And let’s see how their health, their children’s educational outcomes, their work in housing choices are impacted by having this basic income to help them make those ends meet,” Mile says. She says the idea came from Doctor Nalo Johnson, who is the President & CEO of Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, after she saw results from other pilots across the country.

“One of the things that we look forward to establishing is the positive health outcomes that come from people believing that financial stress in being able to get better nutrition, etcetera,” Miles says. They will seek 110 low-income individuals living in Polk, Warren and Dallas Counties. She says they want to see what happens when you help people get caught up — so that they can move into higher income levels. “What changes do we see occur on the psychological mental behavioral level, on the day-to-day, you know pedestrian bits of life food choices, etc. That’s why we wanted to give the income what happens when we remove money as a barrier,? She says.

Miles says giving the participants money gives them more options compared to other supports like food assistance which has many restrictions on how it can be used. She says the data from the other pilots across the country has shown the money is well spent. “They tend to spend it on basic needs. They tend to spend it on medical care, they tend to spend it on reducing debt, that’s been a stressor for the household. And much of that debt is medical debt,” She says. They tend to spend it on food, they tend to spend it on clothes and shoes that they might not have otherwise been able to get for their families.”

Miles says the stories about people getting assistance and spending the money on things it wasn’t intended for tend to get more attention. She says that hasn’t proven to be true in these pilots. “What we’re seeing is families are taking care of necessities, they aren’t out there, you know, buying booze or drugs or anything like that. Now, out of the thousands of cases, could there be one? Possibly? I haven’t heard of one. It hasn’t been reported in the literature,” according to Miles. The other pilots across the country have been in places like Stockton, California, Baltimore, Maryland, Chicago, Atlanta, and Mexico. Miles says the Iowa project is unique.

“Most of the other ones are in an urban context. This one, since it’s in central Iowa, and covering Polk, Warren and Dallas counties, you’re gonna get urban participants, primarily from Des Moines, you’re gonna get that kind of suburban participant coming out of parts of Dallas and Warren counties,” she says. “And you’re gonna get a rural participant, primarily out of Warren and you know, the far reaches of Dallas County. No other project or pilot in the country has achieved that.”

Miles says the Iowa pilot should provide some really interesting data to add to the national conversation. Recruitment is expected to begin in late November 2022, with the first payments starting in February 2023. This project is supported in part by federal funds under the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund awarded to Des Moines, Urbandale, and Polk County by the U-S Department of Treasury. Others involved are the Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, Principal Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, Windsor Heights, Bank of America, The Director’s Council, Telligen Community Initiative, and United Way of Central Iowa.