A new statewide task force will tackle Alaska's heroin and opiate crisis.
The formation of the Alaska Opioid Policy Task Force, announced last week, is a recognition that heroin and prescription opiate abuse has reached crisis proportions in Alaska and communities want action, said Kate Burkhart, one of the group's facilitators.
The group is a partnership between the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority and the state Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. Its 20-person membership includes policymakers like Jeff Jessee of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority and Tina Woods of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium as well as community activists, including Kerby Kraus, founder of Fiend 2 Clean, a community for people in recovery.
The task force, the first of its kind, will study the issue and deliver a set of policy recommendations to the governor and Legislature by the end of November, according to Burkhart.
In recent years Alaska has seen a staggering increase in the number of overdose deaths, crime and health problems associated with heroin and opiate use. Public health officials have called the rise "unprecedented."
The seeds of the task force were first planted last fall when high-level Alaska policymakers attended a national summit on the rise of opiates, Burkhart said. At the same time, grass-roots organizations combating heroin were forming in Juneau and the Valley, two of the hardest hit areas.
"There was a great deal of momentum in communities that seemed to be experiencing some pretty dramatic effects," Burkhart said.
The task force will address topics such as importation of heroin into the state, opiate medication prescribing practices, insurance access to addiction treatment, detox services, anti-overdose drugs, needle-exchange programs and the root causes of opiate abuse, according to an announcement released last week.
The opioid task force's first meeting will be held by teleconference May 20. Getting the members together in person would be expensive in a tight fiscal climate, so most if not all of the meetings will be held remotely with video and phone links, Burkhart said.
Meetings will be open to the public. People interested in attending the meeting or testifying can get in touch with the task force via its Facebook page, Alaska Opioid Policy Task Force, or its website.