KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County, Kansas. Share your story idea with Olivia.
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Youth opioid use in Johnson County, Kansas, has increased over the last few years, but new funding aims to tackle the crisis. The county reports that the average age for first drug use in Kansas is around 12 years old.
Johnson County has had resources for opioid prevention and treatment for years, but it wasn’t until recently that the number of teens being treated for opioid use went up dramatically.
“We are collectively facing a youth mental health crisis,” said Sierra Wright, of Johnson County Mental Health.
Johnson County isn’t alone in the fight against opioids, especially when it comes to youth.
Wright said when the percentage of teens being treated for opioid use in the county went from 7.5% to 50%, that’s when funding like this newest grant got a spotlight.
“We are focusing on really trying to expand, sort of addressing these root causes of substance use, and so with that, trying to provide additional supports for parents,” she said.
The county received $200,000 to focus on how parents can help their teens. Wright said a big piece of that is to help parents gain skills to better manage difficult conversations and emotions that may otherwise lead to substance use in teens.
“If parents are able to be regulated, teach those skills to their child, that when their child inevitably faces adversity and the stressors that come with being a teenager, they're going to be able to, with skills, process through that and get through that in a way that they don't need to turn to substances," Wright said.
The county has received funding as part of a broader national effort to address the root causes of substance use, which is partly a result of over-prescribing practices.
“These funds are an attempt to try and right some of those wrongs and help us to be more preventative so that we don't get to the place where we have been in the past few years with an overwhelming number of deaths from opioid use,” Wright said.
The county received an additional $300,000 for opioid treatment.
While many want to see immediate results, Wright said it’ll take a few years to see the impact clearly in Johnson County.
“We're really kind of only in the first couple of years of this funding stream becoming available to specifically focus on and combat the opioid crisis... Our hope is, that within the next five years, we're able to really display how these funds were used to benefit the community,” Wright said.
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