The Brown County Board of Health has recognized opioid addiction as a public health problem and has started a subcommittee to “define solutions and strategies for fighting the war.”

The newest member of the health board, Jeff Cambridge, asked at the March meeting for the county health department to take a lead role in providing information to local people about drug treatment.

The main reason that Cambridge, a pharmacist, wellness coach and father of six, joined the health board this year was to “do something about the opioid crisis in our county,” he said.

“The situation that I have found when I’ve talked with people in the county is they don’t know where to turn to, who to go to, what providers to seek out. They lack the information,” Cambridge said. So they’re turning to Facebook, such as the “Do Something, BC” group, to ask questions, he said.

“People are turning to the public at large to find out where they should send their loved ones as opposed to turning to professionals,” he said, mentioning 65 comments he’d seen on a thread asking about available drug treatment centers in the area. “If I was that person, I would be more confused than before I read them,” he said.

“I’m proposing that we, as the board of health, and (Brown County Health Officer) Dr. Oestrike, publicly declare that Brown County sees the opioid crisis as a top health priority so that we can provide, as I have read in the purpose of the health department, education, knowledge, referrals, so that the health department can be a central point for communicating that information,” he said.

The health board approved his request, declaring the opioid epidemic a public health crisis and creating a subcommittee.

Health department staff and a couple board members already have been involved in the Brown County Drug Free Coalition, said board member Cathy Rountree and health department nurse Jennifer Unsworth. The new subcommittee planned to meet with Oestrike and the nursing department to learn what the health department and other groups in the county already are doing.

In addition to Cambridge, the subcommittee includes Rountree and Oestrike; others may be added in the future.

Oestrike said he believes addiction is a bigger problem than has been reported so far because so many deaths occur in hospitals, and Brown County doesn’t have one; therefore, deaths reported as happening in other counties likely involve local people.

Brown County is further hampered by not having a medical facility where people can go for treatment beyond mental health services, and the ones that do exist in the wider area are too far away for people to get to easily. He said he appreciated Cambridge bringing attention to the issue.