Host: Stephan Currie

Guest: Amy Dolinky of MAC

Topic: MAC’s work with members on planning the use of opioid settlement dollars is the theme of a special episode of Podcast 83 this week.

Host Stephan Currie interviewed Amy Dolinky, MAC’s technical adviser on opioid settlement planning, about the association’s cutting-edge work in the field and how MAC is adapting to counties’ changing informational needs.

“We are still offering our existing individualized technical assistance to county governments on their opioid settlement funds,” Dolinky said. “What's changed is really that we went from supporting counties mostly in planning efforts, and now many counties are spending or in the process of executing contracts with grantees or vendors. So, we're really kind of transitioning to looking more at assessing the impact of the dollars, how folks are reporting and monitoring and considerations around transparency as well.

“Last year, MAC was able to work with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to adapt MAC’s guidance on transparency, to create the national guidance on transparency related to settlements, or one of the quick guides that we've seen come out to really support counties in their efforts related to these funds,” she added.

“We're also involved in the National Association of Counties’ (NACo) Opioid Solutions Leadership Network … and we've been able to participate and present in (Washington, D.C.) on the work that we're doing to help other associations provide support to their members.”

“Yes, because really, we're one of the unique associations that's providing the service?” Currie asked. “Can you talk a little bit about that, what the outlook is at other state associations or other states across the country and maybe what some of the goals of this NACo program are?”

“So, specifically, the three states associations that presented at this conference were North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan. It's important for the other states to see our three distinct and unique models for providing these supports, to understand that these services don't have to be provided within a specific framework,” Dolinky replied. “Based on the reporting requirements in that state, based on funding for positions like mine and based on the ways in which the statewide associations are working with both local government and state government can really impact the supports that are provided. We were able to highlight three distinct models for how those services can be done, whether that's an individual providing the support or a team providing that support to members can really make a difference. And there's a lot of other considerations in this work that we were able to talk to the group about as well.”