 afternoon everybody thank you for being here today I just want to announce that I'm taking the additional step in our commonwealth wide fight against heroin and opioid abuse against the epidemic to further combat this crisis today I'm issuing a statewide disaster declaration for the heroin and opioid epidemic and officially I am declaring this public health crisis a statewide disaster emergency I don't take this action lightly we know that this crisis has taken far too many lives it has broken far too many families it is decimated far too many communities and it has gone on far too long according to the Center for Disease Control Pennsylvania now has the fourth highest overdose rate in the country in 2016 we lost over 4,600 Pennsylvanians to this disease and according to provisional data we lost an additional 5,260 Pennsylvanians in 2017 those that we have lost are not just numbers their mothers their fathers sons daughters family members neighbors all of them contributing members of our society they're people whose parents and grandparents I have sat with and heard how devastating this disease is for all of them we mourn their losses and we try to empathize with the pain most of us cannot even begin to imagine but as we do we understand we also have to act quickly and decisively to make sure that those numbers don't continue to grow so this disaster declaration while it's not a silver bullet will open additional avenues for the state to fight back against this public health crisis so that no longer will families have to suffer these kinds of unimaginable losses the opening of the opioid operational command center the command center housed with Pima you'll be hearing from director Rick Flynn in a minute within Pima that will track and monitor our progress this center is part of this decade declaration the center will include staff from the departments of health human services drug and alcohol programs aging state corrections the state police Pennsylvania emergency management agency Pima and the Pennsylvania Commission on crime and delinquency PCC D that's nine agencies will be working together through this center that center will be tasked with providing updates on our progress throughout the declaration's duration which is 90 days by the Constitution additional projects to be undertaken under this declaration include allowing EMS providers to leave behind naloxone with users of opioids who lawfully possess the drugs for their own use or someone else's use who lives in the in their home it will allow for pharmacists to partner with other organizations to increase access to look to naloxone this declaration will expand access to the prescription drug monitoring program to other commonwealth departments for clinical decision-making purposes will include the rescheduling of fentanyl derivatives to align with D. E. A. schedules will add overdoses and neonatal abstinence syndrome as reportable conditions will waive the face-to-face requirement for physicians to intake patients into the narcotic treatment programs that are all over the state will authorize the emergency procurement of a long-term contract for D. D. for D depths department of drug and alcohol programs get help now hotline which helps connect individuals in need and their families with the resources they need for help will expand access to medication assisted treatment for satellite narcotic treatment programs it will waive annual licensing requirements for high performing drug and alcohol treatment facilities will move from annual relicensing to biannual uh... every two years so it'll streamline the purchasing of the body scanner to be used on re-entrance at warnersville where we have seen a very high incidence of abuse and overdose it will waive fees for birth certificates for individuals with opioid use disorders allowing them quicker access to treatment and benefits and it will waive separate licensing requirements for hospitals to expand access to drug and alcohol treatment programs while the scope of this declaration is broad and while it affects programs and entities across the commonwealth it is imperative that we use every tool to try to contain and eradicate this public health crisis i have pledged to do everything in my power to stop this scourge and to protect the families and communities of pennsylvania that are suffering because we know that this crisis does not discriminate it hits every age level every creed color and income level it hits rural and urban areas it hits all regions of the state northwest east and south this declaration follows through on the promise that i've made and recognizes the seriousness of the issue that we're all facing and this declaration is the latest it's the latest in a series of steps that my administration in partnership with the legislature this is a bipartisan issue has already taken in the last two and a half years just to review we have taken aggressive steps right here in harrisburg republicans and democrats in the senate and the house to tackle the heroin and opioid uh... abuse epidemic we've done a number of things first we've redesigned the prescription drug monitoring program second we've expanded and work to protect medicaid we now have one hundred and twenty five thousand people providers get reimbursement for treatment for substance use disorder we've provided funding all of us here in this building for forty five centers of excellence for treatment centers we've created the drug take back program that allows people to get rid of unwanted prescription drugs we have one of those at least one in every county in pennsylvania we've made the opioid reversal antidote naloxone available to all pennsylvania through a standing order signed by physician general now acting secretary of health rachel levin we've created ten sets of prescribing guidelines to assist health care professionals to deliver the best most appropriate care to individuals with substance use disorder we've done we've worked with pennsylvania's medical schools to create new curricula we've created a toll-free helpline to connect individuals seeking treatment for themselves or a loved one we've limited the number of opioids that can be prescribed to a minor or to anybody in an emergency room we've expanded access to naloxone by providing funds to first responders and law enforcement officials that will help them keep their supplies up and we've provided two million dollars to expand specially drug courts throughout pennsylvania so while these steps have been significant we've been working on this for some time we've made significant progress we all know that we have more to do the sheer number of overdoses and deaths show that we need to do a lot more and the stories that pour in all too frequently and all too tragically from every corner of the commonwealth show that we need to do more the need this need is what this disaster declaration is about we cannot stand by we cannot stand on what we've done as long as this disaster this disease continues to ravage our lives our communities our families we cannot stand by we cannot fail to act in face of this crisis we cannot allow more families suffer the tragedies that they've suffered already the numbers again are staggering the impact is devastating we cannot allow it to continue throughout the duration of this declaration we will continue to analyze review and change our response based on what we find what comes out of this this declaration because we need to find solutions that work we've all heard the horror stories the woman who's been through eight treatment facilities by the time she's twenty she continues to struggle the dad who broke down in tears begging me for help for his daughter the police officer who arrived on a scene to find his only only minutes late to save somebody's life or the grandmother who's raising her grandchildren because they've lost both parents to the disease these stories are horrific they're far far too common so we're here today to put a stop to them and deliver help to those who need it so that we can stop this loss and rebuild our communities i want to thank all the agencies for their work as well as the partners in the general assembly for their dedication to finding real solutions to beat this epidemic today is about pushing forward about using all the possible tools we have today is about the families of pennsylvania who is suffering today is about getting them the help they need now i want to turn this over to the director of the pennsylvania emergency management agency rick flay thank you governor and i will tell you on behalf of people were honored to be part of this very very critical and important issue it is a disaster and every single day pima is organized and trained to be able to coordinate and coordinate and collaborate among the state agencies to provide assistance to disaster survivors and uh... so we've been asked and tasked to help do that where the health department is primarily the lead agency and so our role was really focused in on doing the things we normally do in any disaster whether it's gathering information from a situation awareness perspective working with state agencies identifying problems and working with them on what they have the ability to provide the resources to solve those problems from the commonwealth response coordination center and that's what we call it because it's not a state emergency operation center because we don't command we coordinate uh... we're actually is going to as the governor mentioned bring in not only the state agencies he mentioned but it's a whole government and whole community approach to disaster response and so with the state agencies in the in the department and the de-adapt folks that have been engaged with we're going to be coordinating that those efforts uh... the again the we operate under the national incident management system the national incident management system is a fundamentally a structure that helps coordinate has language that that everyone understands and sets in a system up incident command where there's a function of leadership and breaking out of branches and divisions to be able to identify and how to solve problems we're going to be implementing that that's what we do and uh... i'm i'm proud to be part of this effort so again under the uh... direction of governor wolf we are very proud to be part of this process and will work very closely with the state agencies involved to be able to not only do what we need to do in the ninety day period but help set the framework for a future of dealing with a serious serious crisis i'd like to introduce uh... apologize i'd like to introduce secretary the department of uh... uh... uh... drug and alcohol program uh... miss uh... jennifer smith thank you director flinn uh... and thank you governor uh... i have not met a person in state government who takes this epidemic more seriously than our governor every meeting every staff meeting every press event he takes the opportunity to talk about this epidemic and so i i give a great amount of thanks to him for the tremendous effort that he takes in leading all of us as cabinet members in addressing this epidemic it's not just about my agency as the department of drug and alcohol programs it's about every agency in the commonwealth truly in all hands-on approach and i think what this declaration does is allows us to bring even more energy and more drive behind all of those initiatives so the governor mentioned some of the things that we're going to be doing as part of this declaration uh... one of the things is extending the hotline that he mentioned so back in november of twenty sixteen our department work to stand up a hotline one eight hundred six six two help it's a hotline geared at uh... connecting individuals with resources and providing direct referrals into treatment since the go live of that hotline they have taken over twenty thousand phone calls twenty thousand phone calls this declaration will enable us to ensure that there's no disruption to that service another thing that this declaration will enable us to do is look at our regulations and look at ways we can reduce burdens on our treatment providers allowing them to cut back on the paperwork required and instead to vote those hours to the patients who so desperately need treatment some other regulations will be looking at our ways in which we can ensure patients are brought into treatment facilities more quickly so we're taking a look at the intake there are some regulations that require a face-to-face physician examination as part of the intake process physicians aren't always accessible there are hot commodity in the drug and alcohol world so sometimes that could delay intake to a facility by hours or even days that's not acceptable this declaration will enable us to allow other individuals in the treatment facility such as certified registered nurse practitioners and physicians assistants to perform that face-to-face evaluation rather than waiting for a physician so those are just some examples of ways we're looking at our regulations and ways to better treat individuals and get them access to that treatment much more quickly so again I thank the governor and I thank all of my cabinet members and I really look forward to the collaboration and the energy that this declaration can bring to the epidemic and now I'd like to call to the podium my friend and colleague Dr. Rachel Levine the acting secretary for the Department of Health and Physician General thank you Secretary Smith good afternoon I also would like to thank Governor Wolf for this really unprecedented action to the best of our knowledge at the Department of Health a Pennsylvania governor has never used a disaster proclamation such as this for a public health emergency and it's very significant because all working together we can allow more resources to be able to help Pennsylvanian suffering from opioid use disorder I think it's critical to emphasize that addiction and opioid use disorder are medical conditions they are diseases they are not a moral failing in this disease in Pennsylvania has reached this epidemic proportion it is a public health emergency it is the worst public health crisis that we have faced in Pennsylvania and you could argue in the nation in a more than a generation the Department of Health is really honored to be fully participating in this effort and in the opioid operations command center will be providing staff will be providing resources and are very pleased to be participating in collaborating with all of our sister agencies in public health as well as in law enforcement and public safety on this effort you had mentioned the prescription drug monitoring program the prescription drug monitoring program which is approximately a year and a half old started in august of two thousand and sixteen is a critical tool in our effort it is part of the opioid stewardship effort that we have in terms of preventing people from becoming addicted to these medicines and monitoring them and we will utilize that in the command center the prescription drug monitoring program has decreased opioid prescriptions by almost twelve percent from september two thousand sixteen to september two thousand seventeen through this effort will be increasing our data sharing with all of our sister agencies so they can use that data to help them in their efforts to combat this crisis this declaration also gives first responders ems agencies another tool in terms of saving lives using the standing order that i signed in two thousand and fifteen first responders such as ems have been able to use naloxone to save someone suffering an overdose using this life-saving medicine police departments have saved over five thousand seven hundred lives in approximately the last three years using naloxone but sometimes those lives are still at risk now we want patients who are resuscitated and revived with naloxone to go to the emergency department because then we want to link them with treatment but at times they don't and first responders have been asking us ems has been asking the department of health for the ability to then leave behind a kit of naloxone to save their will have their friends and family save their life if they might overdose again and so this time if a patient does refuse to go to the emergency department the responders will be able to leave behind a kit of naloxone in case they might suffer another overdose now we know that naloxone is absolutely essential it's absolutely essential you cannot access treatment and get into recovery if you're dead however it is not sufficient and so uh... through this effort of the command center will be continuing our warm handoff efforts we're going to be having a series of warm handoff regional convenings to work with the the single county authorities regulated by the department of drug and alcohol programs as well as emergency departments health and hospital systems treatment providers uh... as well as ems and corners to try to get people into treatment but they have to be able to be alive to get into treatment so to close to all the families that are suffering from this disease during this epidemic during this crisis it's it's important to remember and first always to emphasize that treatment works recovery is possible and so under the governor's leadership who is committed to addressing this crisis we all in the administration have to give hope hope to the patients suffering from the disease of addiction hope to their families that are suffering right along with them hope to our communities and hope to our commonwealth you know i'm going to sign the declaration that i'll come back here and i'll any of us will take uh... questions uh... so let me sign the declaration