La Crosse heroin task force educates state employee on local struggles

It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution

Paul Krupski was recently named as Director of Opioid initiatives for the Wisconsin Dept. of Health Services. He spoke at the La Crosse County Heroin Task Force meeting Thursday, as part of a statewide listening session.

“We need to hit this one the forefront and we need to hit it on the back end,” Krupski said of the opioid crisis. “So, focusing on prevention, treatment and recovery is how we’re going to impact the opioid crisis in Wisconsin, and we continue to invest and put efforts into all three pieces.”

Krupski added that they have an abundance of data to help figure out where to send resources and how to tackle the problem.

“It really helps us frame the issue, know what the issues are and helps us determine the strategies and efforts that we want to put forward,” he said. “Prescription drug abuse, we’ll continue to address that, as well as heroin, and now seeing the fentanyl issues coming int the state, as well.”

Krupski said lack of treatment options and space have been a common theme as he travels around the state.

“Treatment is always going to be a need,” he said. “Expanding our treatment capacity for opioid use disorder, that’s something that we’ll always be trying to do.

“We were just awarded four new grants to do that, working with our federal partners.”