City-County Heroin, Opioid and Cocaine Task Force to Make Big Changes Following 2022 Results 

At the City-County Heroin, Opioid & Cocaine Task Force meeting mental health and drug initiative directors announced their results from 2022 and their plans to improve in 2023. 

Milwaukee Fire Captain David Polachowski said for 2022 the total number of overdose related incidents from the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative. 

Total attempted contact was 3200, successful contact was 523 with 533 being non-patient contact. Total enrolled into treatment was 54, with 65 who have overdosed this year, according to the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative. 

Polachowski shared heartwarming stories involving patients who recovered from drug addiction involving multiple overdoses.  

“It’s very important to hear these stories, too often we think of these statistics at just numbers and in the end, they are real people,” Alderman Michael Murphy said. 

“It’s looking pretty good for some of the people who we are following up with and actually getting some help on their own,” David Polachowski said 

Chief of county mental health services Mike Lappen said the first stages of production has begun for the harm reduction vending machines.  

“The most exciting news is that we have moved forward and purchased some Vending machines for harm reduction supplies,” he said. 

It is still uncertain how these vending machines will be supplied, maintained and located. The county mental health services are working with state community stakeholders to ensure these are implemented. 

Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission Director Constance Kostelac announced her commission will introduce “next of kin interviews” to improve changes that can be enforces to help the program understand drug influenced individuals better. 

“This next of kin interviewing is adding a whole new understanding of what happened with that particular individual,” she said. 

Kostelac introduced improvements that could be made for each committee present at the meeting; availability of treatment, opportunities within the community and lending information on the history of the individuals’ past. 

Proposals for the counties opioid settlement awards are hoped to be approved by the committee. 

“The keystone of our submission is funding to maintain our program that provides medication assisted treatment to those individuals who are at the house of correction and the jail,” Lappen said.