County contracts $15,000 for online mental health service
Man Therapy is officially coming to Taylor County.
At the July 10 Opioid Settlement Ad-Hoc meeting, the committee voted to spend $15,000 of the settlement money Taylor County received to contract with Man Therapy, an online mental health website targeted towards working-aged men. The services on Man Therapy are anonymous and free for anyone to use. Taylor County will have access to Man Therapy for 12 months.
“How many people do you think are going to use it? Being a man, that’s something we don’t like doing,” said Chuck Zenner. Concerns about how many men would use the service were brought up last month as well.
Public Health Foundationalist Melissa Moore responded by explaining that the service is tailored to reach men who otherwise would not seek help: “If you are in a bar and you see a scan code you may be more likely to scan it. [It is] going to be some very intentional outreach.” The QR codes will be on coasters at bars and on posters in bathrooms for men to scan with their phones.
Moore also discussed how the $15,000 will be spent. $5,000 will go towards purchasing the licensure to use the Man Therapy Brand. From this, Taylor County will be able to make the outreach specific to the county area. Another $5,000 will go towards buying ad space, print materials, and program materials. The remaining $5,000 will be spent to pay the staff who will work on outreach for about two hours each week.
Payment for treatment
$15,000-20,000 of the opioid settlement funds will be spent to help an individual who has sought addiction recovery services in Taylor County.
“That’s the reason for this money, helping someone on their road to recovery,” stated committee member Suzanne Stanfley. The funds will pay for the individual’s stay at a residential treatment facility.
The individual became addicted to opioids after being treated with pain medication 15 years ago. After their prescription ended, they turned to heroin and fentanyl. Their family moved them from a larger city to Taylor County, where they have received services and have “been doing everything they need to do,” per Stanfley.
Meds, sharps, and vending machines
The Opioid Subcommittee met for the first time since the last full Opioid Committee meeting. “One of the biggest things we looked at is sharps and medication boxes. Taylor County is severely lacking in that department,” reported Michelle Cahoon, health officer. She added that there have been many calls about sharps in ditches. To address this, the subcommittee is looking at buying sharps disposal drop boxes that would be available 24 hours a day in Rib Lake, Medford, and Gilman.
Medication drop boxes pose a more complicated problem because they must be stationed in the sheriff’s department. There used to be a medication drop box at the sheriff’s department in Taylor County, but it was removed due to the amount of work it took to properly dispose of the medication. Since then, new avenues for correctly disposing of medications have arisen. “Clark County has zero cost,” Moore said as she described how Clark County simply stores the medication as required and disposes of it on the Wisconsin’s Drug Take-Back Day. The committee decided to add a proposal to bring back the medication disposal box to the law enforcement committee meeting’s agenda. The law enforcement committee discussed the request at the July 11 meeting but did not take any formal action.
