Milwaukee County’s goal is to enrich your life by providing essential services that meet your needs and those of your family, neighbors, co-workers and friends.
We enhance the quality of life in Milwaukee County through great public service.
Milwaukee County is home to over 950,000 people living in one of 19 communities, which range in size from the City of Milwaukee, with 595,000 residents, to the Village of River Hills, with roughly 1,600 residents.
Still a manufacturing stronghold, the region features 16 Fortune 1000 companies and thousands of others in the financial services, medical device, hospitality and retailing industries.
Find information about things to do and happenings in Milwaukee County.
The opioid crisis is rooted in the late-1990s, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin which led the U.S. healthcare system to greatly increase the prescription of opioid painkillers. For more than a decade, the steady increase of overdose deaths involving prescription opioids continued with little attention. In 2011, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared deaths from prescription painkillers an “epidemic.” The crisis would surge for over a decade and continues today.
In response to the opioid epidemic, state and local governments around the country filed lawsuits against distributors, manufacturers, pharmacies, and those similarly engaged in promoting opioids, claiming a violation of the federal Controlled Substance Act. By 2023, it was confirmed that Milwaukee County would receive $102 million over the next 18 years through unprecedented nationwide opioid settlements – the largest amount recovered by any local government in the history of Wisconsin.
According to settlement guidance, opioid settlement funds can be used in various ways to address the multifaceted challenges posed by the opioid crisis. This includes funding for addiction treatment, recovery services, and initiatives aimed at preventing opioid misuse. Settlement guidance also emphasizes the importance of allocating resources to address the social and economic impacts of opioid addiction. Milwaukee County used this guidance to develop an allocation process to ensure funds are utilized to effectively address the root causes of the crisis and mitigate its widespread consequences.
Milwaukee County’s Office of Strategy, Budget & Performance (SBP) convened Milwaukee County stakeholders in 2022 to develop an allocation process that addresses the opioid crisis holistically. The strategy was developed to meet urgent community needs while beginning support for long-term initiatives. The process requested proposals from internal department service areas that were informed by department-led community engagement. Projects could include one-time requests such as equipment or capital expenses or funds for up to three years of programming.
The annual report serves as an in-depth review of the opioid epidemic and how Milwaukee County used Opioid Settlement resources in 2023. The annual report also describes a five-year strategy developed by Milwaukee County to guide future spending, centering residents and community recovery.
In total, $16,548,068 was authorized for spending across 15 projects, led by four departments, for fiscal years (FY) 23-25. Below is a summary of these projects.
The proposed project addresses and further identifies the unique needs of older adults at risk related to preventing and responding to opioid misuse, including trainings and outreach to stakeholders to promote prevention and assessment.
This project focuses on regranting opioid prevention and response funds to community-based organizations and increasing prevention capacity and coordination through a prevention manager role. This builds on DHHS’ track record of participatory and collaborative regranting processes.
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The purpose of this project is to get Harm Reduction Kits in the hands of emergency responders for better application of counter-opioid tactics. Kits will have items like personal protective equipment, fentanyl test strips, and naloxone medication.
This project will increase access to harm reduction supplies using evidence-based harm reduction strategies, with outreach methods incorporating both a webpage and strategically located vending machines.
Two treatment and resource navigators aim to expand Milwaukee County Housing Services' Homeless Outreach Team to provide additional services to those experiencing unsheltered homelessness and dealing with substance use disorders.
All of the areas associated with death investigations are processes that are done by individuals. The additional positions will allow the office to perform these death investigations and provide the data associated with them to partners in a timely fashion.
This project will continue the successful program which reduces risk of overdose deaths for incarcerated individuals by offering the evidence-based practice of Medication-Assisted Treatment, which is known to be a best practice for individuals who are living with an opioid use disorder.
This project will provide line staff with training on the use of Narcan. It will also provide each Deputy Sheriff assigned to the Patrol Division nasal Narcan to carry during their tours of duty.
This project establishes an opioid-specific first responder and public education program to increase the level of training to those called to respond to overdose cases. The project will also increase the general knowledge of the public and families affected by opioid use, raising understanding to a level similar to the awareness of CPR.
With the recently-approved pilot use of Buprenorphine in certain programs, this project aims to establish a trial buprenorphine program to begin field inductions of this opioid antagonist to reduce the number of secondary overdoses, and to buy time for the patient to seek medical and substance abuse treatment.
This project will offer start-up funding to support agencies who can develop new residential substance abuse treatment facilities, aiming to reduce the wait list of individuals in need of treatment for opioid use disorder.
This project will provide evidence-based and evidence-informed opiate abuse prevention and intervention services for youth in detention and those returning to the community following detention.
Develop and maintain an overdose surveillance dashboard that provides a deeper level of detail and visibility to EMS calls for suspected overdoses than is currently available in public facing dashboards.
The replacement of the portable body cooler will provide an increased capacity for respectful body storage in a unit that is not operated by diesel fuel.
Five autopsy carts will be purchased, which are necessary for investigations.
Milwaukee County Officials Hope Opioid Settlement Funds Will Help End Record High Overdose Deaths
by: Evan Casey (Wisconsin Public Radio)
City of Milwaukee received first $600K from the opioid lawsuit settlement.
Read the Article
2/13
Six Ways County Will Spend Opioid Settlement Funds
by: Graham Kilmer (Urban Milwaukee)
Opioid treatment programs a priority for spending $56 million won from drug companies.
1/24
Milwaukee County Considers Use of Opioid Settlement Funds
by: Edgar Mendez (Neighborhood News Service)
This could mark the fourth consecutive year of record-high drug overdose deaths in Milwaukee County, which expects to receive $70 million from opioid litigation.
12/8
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Milwaukee County Courthouse 901 N. 9th St., Room 308 Milwaukee, WI 53233
Email: [email protected]