A recipient in Greene County received new grant funding this year and is thankful to put it to good use.

Midwest Wellness and Recovery was one of the entities that applied and received $75,000 of grant funds from the Greene County Opioid Settlement Funds Allocation Committee. This was from the money that the county was able to get, after joining with several other counties in the state of Iowa as part of a national lawsuit settlement with pharmaceutical companies that contributed to the opioid epidemic. 

Co-Owner, President and CEO of Midwest Wellness and Recovery Megan Waters tells Raccoon Valley Radio they used the grant money for different items as part of their services they provide that focuses on recovering from substances, notably opioids. 

“We have a couple of different milestones that we’re looking at collecting data of how many specifically Greene County clients are we serving? What levels of care are we serving? How can we slowly look into (the) prevention side of things? How can we work with school districts and educate our youth, because this is a generational disease. It impacts everyone.”     

Greene County Attorney Thomas Laehn is one of the committee members and said in a recent Board of Supervisors meeting that the county was to receive a total of $275,000 from the settlement that could only be used to fight against the opioid epidemic. Waters explains what their future plans would be if they receive additional grant money.

“We can look at helping cover the grey area where maybe a client doesn’t qualify for Medicaid but they don’t have a commercial policy. They folks have such a difficult time getting services. Our end goal is to be able to help with that.”

Laehn noted in the Supervisors meeting that the committee would open another round of grant applications in the beginning of 2025. The other recipient of grant funds for this year was Greene County New Opportunities with $35,000.