MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Veterans Mental Health Steering Committee was told Wednesday that opioid misuse among Alabama veterans was more than ten-times greater than national rates.
The body committed to focusing on prevention and recovery services in its effort to improve mental health care for veterans.
The presentation was by David Albright, a professor at the University of Alabama and principal investigator for VitAL, a UA research and education initiative that partners with state agencies. VitAL had conducted an analysis of the behavioral health landscape for Alabama’s veterans.
“Nationally, veterans had a slightly lower prevalence of opioid misuse compared to non-veterans, however, statewide data revealed significantly higher rates among veterans,” Albright said.
“The percentage difference between veterans and non-veteran opioid misuse is significant, ranging from four to five percentage points. Counties like Wilcox, Perry and Dallas showed the highest rates of opioid misuse for both groups, with veteran rates exceeding 35%.”
The data showed that nationally, approximately 3.1% of veterans misuse opioids, compared to 3.5% of non-veterans. In Alabama, however, as many as 33.7% of veterans were found to have misused opioids, compared to 29.7% for non-veterans.
Alabama has been hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic and in 2015 had more opioid prescriptions than people. Emergency room visits for opioid overdoses have also been on the rise in the state, increasing by 76% from 2018 to 2022, from 2,483 to 4,375. The use of Narcan, a synthetic drug that can reverse the effects of opioid overdoses, has increased in Alabama by nearly 85% from 2019 to 2023.
Geographical regions and demographics also correlated with higher instances of opioid misuse among Alabama’s veterans, Albright explained.
“Results show that opioid misuse was more likely among individuals with older age, female status, white race, and living in a rural community,” he said.
The committee was established earlier this year after the passage of Senate Bill 135 and is tasked with developing a comprehensive plan to better address veteran mental health. The first part of developing the plan is to conduct a full review of the current state of mental health care resources for veterans, with a deadline of Jan. 1 to complete this review.
Alabama Mental Health Department Commissioner Kim Boswell, who leads the committee, said it is in good shape to have a full review complete by next month. She also said that the committee will soon be submitting requests for proposals to launch a series of pilot programs designed “primarily for prevention treatment and recovery services for veterans.”
While not finalized, the pilot programs will be funded by $3 million in opioid settlement funds that state lawmakers allocated toward the initiative back in April. If successful, Boswell said that hopefully, lawmakers would consider funding their expansion statewide in next year’s state budgets.
“We would love to see some pilot projects that would demonstrate really strong peer-support programs,” Boswell told Alabama Daily News. “Then we would know, if those are successful, if we needed to replicate them statewide.”
Outside of focusing on prevention and recovery services, the details of what the committee will ultimately choose to pursue for its pilot programs are still unclear. Albright, however, made several recommendations to the committee as to where the state could improve on veteran mental health.
“From the data, we can infer a need to close gaps across the state, perhaps by increasing the availability of veteran-specific resources in underserved areas by expanding transportation and telehealth options to improve accessibility,” he said.
“We can infer a need to enhance inter-agency coordination to streamline services and improve outcomes, and we can infer a need to tailor strategies to address regional differences, particularly between rural and urban areas. Prioritizing prevention and early intervention efforts will further strengthen support for our veterans.”
After completing its full review of existing mental and behavioral health care services for veterans, the committee’s next task will be to develop a comprehensive plan to address shortages of those services by April 1, 2025. The committee will then be required to produce a final version of that plan by June 30. Gov. Kay Ivey will then have until Aug. 31 to act on that plan, which could take the form of legislation or procedural changes at state agencies.
“I’m just excited,” said Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, who chairs the Senate committee on military affairs, speaking with ADN. “We’ve got some rough ideas of a plan, we’re starting to move forward.”