Overdoses declared public health crisis in San Antonio

We recently told you the city of San Antonio declared overdoses a public health crisis. It could open the door for more state and federal funding to address the problem. News 4 San Antonio's Stephanie Esquivel tells us Bexar County is moving towards doing the same thing. We've got a real issue here where people are dying from fatal overdoses. And it's something that we want to have a more coordinated and collaborative response to address. A deadly problem happening at an alarming rate in Felton neighborhoods across the area. All demographics suffer from drug addiction according to chief mental health officer for the city of San Antonio, Jesse Higgins. That's why the city declared overdoses a public health crisis. An issue Higgins says is not contained to just city limits. People are dying from meth at a higher rate than the state of Texas' rate here in Bexar County. Now Bexar County Preventative Health is moving towards asking county commissioners to make the same declaration at a county level. We've been working really closely with the city of San Antonio. They are introducing a resolution at city council to declare overdose a public health crisis. We've been working with them on the language of their text. We hope to bring the same resolution back to this court just to solidify our commitment to looking at overdose. I reached out to all Bexar County commissioners to ask if the declaration is something they support. With the holiday most have been unable to reach back out. But precinct 3 commissioner Grant Moody sent me a statement. I will continue to support smart, targeted, data-based approaches to reduce opioid deaths in our community. It's able for us to be more obvious and more alert about our partnerships and our intentions. And so we are definitely hoping that it will open the door for more funding. Higgins says declaring overdoses a public health crisis can bring several benefits, including access to state and federal funds. Federal grants that we hope will become available through different initiatives at the federal level to include SAMHSA, which is the Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration. They have grants that come out periodically. We still don't have a timeline of when the county will make the declaration, but it could happen within the next two months. In the Content Center, Stephanie Esquivel, News 4 San Antonio.