HUDSON — Hudson is one of the communities that will receive funds from opioid abatement settlements, or national settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors.
Massachusetts is receiving over $900 million in settlement funds, with 60% going to the state level and 40% going to cities and towns.
Senior Public Health Planner Claire Hoffman from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council said that Hudson is estimated to receive around $750,000 between 2022 and 2038 in increments. She provided some recommendations on how Hudson could use these funds, including state-approved strategies involving treatment, recovery and prevention, at the Select Board meeting on Nov. 4.
Following the completion of eight focus groups of people who have experienced substance use and their family members, the Health Department found that around 16 to 25 overdoses occur in Hudson per year, with a small number of them fatal.
Hoffman said that alcohol use is the “most pervasive substance” being used.
Hoffman said those surveyed would like to see the funds used to support people in treatment and recovery as well as to prevent the misuse of opioids.
Specifically, participants wanted to expand the Grade 5 through 12 health education curriculums to include appropriate lessons in elementary schools and learn from their peers or young adults about substance use prevention.
Participants in the groups also expressed gratitude for the Addiction Referral Center in Marlborough. One recommendation was for Hudson to offer a recovery coach who could begin working with individuals upon release from detox or the hospital, especially one who is bilingual.
Hoffman noted one finding was that “it would be great to expand support groups specially for youth speakers of Portuguese and Spanish and parents who have kids who use substances.”
In related news, the Select Board authorized the Health Department to apply for a matching grant from the Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership with the intent of hiring a full-time, bilingual recovery coach who will expand the center’s services and do direct outreach to the Hudson community. The grant is $50,000 for a one-year grant program.
Director of Public and Community Health Lauren Antonelli said the goal of the Health Department is to “prevent, promote and protect,” and in order to do that they must understand who is being protected, what must be prevented and how to best promote health in the community.
She presented some data on the current state of health in the town of Hudson that was gathered by working with Emerson Hospital and Emerson Urgent Care, which is located at the Highland Commons Plaza. Hudson is one of the towns in their primary service area, she said.
She said, “I’ve been involved in the strategic planning with them.”
Through their community health need assessment, one top health priority identified in Hudson was mental health and substance abuse. Antonelli said mental health coming up as the main concern for the Hudson community rang true as it comes up in the surveys they conduct.
In terms of reports of depression in older adults, 32.1% of the population in 2018 said they have experienced depression, which was the second highest among nearby communities like Bolton and Stow. Similarly, in 2023, Hudson youth from grades 9 to 12 reported experiencing slightly higher rates than their peers of being stressed, being depressed and dealing with anxiety.
Antonelli said, “Students are really pointing to the stressors of school, high expectations and also social media as major contributing factors.”
Data collected in 2021 showed that compared to the state percent of 15.5%, 19% of Hudson participants reported drinking more than five alcoholic drinks on one occasion within the last 30 days. To provide context, she noted every community polled was higher than the state percentage. Hudson had the highest rate of alcohol-related emergency room visits, according to the Emerson data.
As for the youth stats, when compared to the MetroWest region, Hudson youth from grades 9 to 12 had slightly higher use of substances, such as electronic vapor products (13%), alcohol (22%) and marijuana (11%). Hudson respondents, which totaled 525, were within three percentage points of the region’s data.
Antonelli said the data she shared was relative to state and regional results, and the good news was that “we can help, and we are helping every day.”
She said, “We do a lot of great work. We have a lot of services and programs that we provide.”
These services include a full-time town social worker who works out of the senior center, a community health worker to assist people with housing applications and a mobile food pantry. There is also a Hudson Youth Substance Awareness and Prevention Coalition and a post-overdose support team that is a collaborative of the Police, Fire and Health departments.
Antonelli said, “We’re always kind of keeping our eye on the data and seeing where we can kind of fit in to help things.”
