This team will work together to create a plan to bring more substance abuse counselors, mental health and medical providers to North Iowa. This project’s focus areas are prevention and treatment with an overall goal of preventing opioid and substance abuse disorder whenever possible, while providing more access to treatment services in North Iowa.
“Our main goal is to find what our community’s current situation is, what our needs are, and how we can improve,” said Alyse DeVries, Public Health Strategist for the Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health. “This grant will allow us to come together as a community to address opioid and substance abuse as a North Iowa team vs. individual agencies. This will make for a much stronger approach to this issue.”
Cerro Gordo County serves as the hub for medical, mental health, sexual health, social service, and substance use disorder treatment providers for the North Iowa area. The County has been identified as a mental health shortage area meaning we do not have enough mental health providers to meet the needs of our county population. Mental health and substance abuse are often connected.
“Currently, there are only six medical providers offering Medication Assisted Therapy (MAT) in a 50 mile radius of Mason City,” stated DeVries. “Medication Assisted Therapy helps persons with substance use disorder safely discontinue use of their substance. We are hopeful this will give more patients access to treatment and a return to a healthy life.”
If we were to take all the African American makes out of town for 3 months, you’d see the reduction of drugs and drug related crime. Can’t we just be honest and admit the detoiters and Chicago transplants as well as all the other random section 8 trash are the problem, I notice they are coming off section 8 now and driving nice ass cars and renting nice homes, you think they afford all that by barely working? Get the hint Mason City, we are a hub for drug crime and African American males run the majority of that. We need to do something before we have a stupid hockey arena in the middle of a giant ghetto.
Move then. I don’t believe a word of your rant except that there are drugs in MC. Have been for years and years.
And yet the ones getting arrested for drug use and selling are white and mostly it’s meth.
Again section 8 is not just black people in fact many whites use it.
Your racist ignorant ass fails to recognize any of that.
Gun control is to disarm us and leave these gangsters, politicians, and thugs (redundant, we know!) with all the guns and the cover of law. ENOUGH!
You are once again full of shit. Blacks make up 12% of the population in Iowa and account for over 25% of the crimes committed. What does that tell you you freakin Dumb Ass?
Meth and heroin. Combined with all it’s other issues Mason City is not gonna prosper at all. The next ten years will be the decline into absolute hell.
Who get most of the money????