Iowa Creates 'Opioid Initiatives Director' To Focus State Efforts

DES MOINES, IA — The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has declared opioid misuse a national epidemic and warns that the number of deaths related to drugs — and particularly prescription opioids — is increasing in nearly half the states in the country. Iowa has taken a step toward addressing that by naming the state's first Opioid Initiatives Director within the Iowa Department of Public Health.

In that new position, Kevin Gabbert will lead the department's efforts in regard to legislative action, strategic planning and activities related to opioid misuse. His job was announced in a news release today.

Gabbert has worked in the Department of Public Health since 2007 in roles that included managing federal grants such as Access to Recovery (ATR) and Medication Assisted Treatment-Prescription Drug and Opioid Addiction (MAT-PDOA). He previously worked for 15 years as a substance use disorder and mental health clinician.

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Earlier this month, the Iowa Department of Public Health announced that it had reached an agreement with the state to allow nonprofit groups to purchase, at the state's cost, doses of a drug that helps treat people during an opioid overdose. The drug, naloxene, is generally available to law enforcement officials, EMS and first responders, as well as some nonprofit agencies that provide community services. But until the agreement was reached, the nonprofit groups paid double the state's rate.

Working with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, the health department was able to allow nonprofits that receive state funding to also purchase the drug at the reduced rate, Gabbert said.

“This is a significant step in potentially reducing opioid-related overdoses,” he said when the agreement was announced last week. “The usual cost for purchasing naloxone through a pharmacy is around $150. By purchasing through the Department of Administrative Services agreement, the cost is $75.”

Gabbert told Radio Iowa today that the proactive approach, such as the naloxene availabilty, is one aspect of the state's efforts in combatting the opioid crisis, and the focus will continue to be on preventing drug-related deaths. Iowa likely will see 200 opioid-related deaths this year, he said, up from 180 in 2016.

“We’ve taken part in several different efforts to try and address this issue — like expanding medication assisted treatment, making naloxone more readily available to individuals — so we’re hopeful that the increase that we saw wasn’t as much as it maybe could’ve been,” Gabbert told Radio Iowa.

The annual America's Health Rankings report by the United Health Foundation, released last week, found Iowa had the fourth lowest number nationally for drugs deaths, yet within the state the number of deaths in 2016 increased by 5 percent over the previous year, to 9.4 deaths per 100,000 people.

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