Clark and Cowlitz counties have been awarded an $800,000 grant from the federal government to support employment and training for those affected by opioid use, addiction and overdose.
The grant, announced Sept. 27, will be administered by the state Employment Security Department, which runs WorkSource centers in Vancouver and Cowlitz County.
The grant will provide employment and training services to dislocated workers in Southwest Washington who are experiencing long-term unemployment and facing homelessness related to the opioid crisis.
Dislocated Worker Grants provide resources to states to respond to large, unexpected layoff events causing significant job losses. The current opioid epidemic in Washington qualified the state to receive this funding.
In October 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency. Since 1999, drug overdose deaths from prescription and illicit opioids have significantly increased. More than 300,000 people have died from opioids nationwide in the last 15 years.
According to the state Department of Health, 17,502 Washington residents died from a drug overdose between 2007 and 2021, and 68 percent of those deaths involved opioids. Since 2019, the annual number of opioid drug overdose deaths in the state doubled from 827 to 1,619.
The most recent opioid response plan by the state details various courses of action to address the ongoing opioid crisis, including supporting individual recovery and using data to detect opioid use.
The 2021-2022 report said, “the health and social consequences of this evolving epidemic are far reaching, affecting not only people who use drugs but the lives of those around them as well. This challenge requires responsive, ongoing collaborative action on all levels.”
