The Falmouth Town Council allocated $107,000 in opioid settlement funds to Falmouth schools for substance misuse prevention and mental health support. The town currently sits on about $300,000 of these funds, which can be challenging for towns to spend.

The funds will be used to survey the substance use and mental health issues faced by Falmouth students grades 6-12 and then to provide services to address these needs, as well as to support student-led programs. 

This money comes from settlements between opioid manufacturers and distributors and local and state governments. The opioid epidemic claimed the lives of over 6,600 Mainers, and the state is set to receive $230 million over the next two decades to fund addiction prevention and treatment programs. 

Falmouth was one of the municipalities to join the lawsuit and will thus get settlement money until 2038. Over the past six years, the town has received $391,000 and spent only $54,000 on drug identification technology for the police department and a Cumberland County naloxone program, said Amanda Methot-Vigue, the town’s policy and strategic initiatives coordinator.

The town is set to receive about $819,000 over the 18 year period. As the funding must be used for addiction treatment and prevention, qualifying projects can be difficult to identify, said Methot-Vigue. Twice before, projects the town hoped to fund with settlement money did not work out.

“There’s been a lot of work to try to identify a good project — a great project — that also meets the requirements of the settlement,” said Councilor Sean Mahoney at the Town Council meeting on April 27.

With the allocated funding, the Falmouth School Department will work with the Jed Foundation, a national mental health and suicide prevention nonprofit, to survey students, staff and families about substance use and mental health challenges. The foundation will then analyze the data and provide the district with a customized prevention plan.

While the forthcoming plan is intended to be long-term, its development and initial implementation process is set to take three years. Cape Elizabeth and Freeport schools have already signed on with the Jed Foundation for similar projects, said Methot-Vigue. 

The funds will also support Falmouth’s chapter of Active Minds, a student-led mental health advocacy group with over 500 chapters nationwide. At the Town Council meeting on April 27, three Falmouth High School students spoke about how their club spreads mental health awareness. The club will also help get students to participate in the Jed Foundation’s survey and the subsequent program.

“With high schoolers, there’s a lot more buy-in if it’s coming from them,” said Methot-Vigue.