Substance use affects families, workplaces, and neighborhoods across Sheboygan County. The Healthy Sheboygan County Substance Safety Action Team brings together community members, organizations, and partners to prevent substance misuse, promote safe medication storage and disposal, reduce stigma, and connect people to treatment and recovery support.
Why is Substance Safety a Priority for HSC?
Substance use disorders are health conditions, not character flaws. When we lead with that understanding, we create space for real change, for individuals and for our community.
Alcohol consumption is historically and culturally intertwined with daily life in Sheboygan County. Excessive alcohol use contributes to traffic incidents, hospitalizations, and family and community disruption. At the same time, opioids, methamphetamines, and substances increasingly laced with fentanyl have created an urgent need for community-wide action.
Unsecured and expired medications are a primary source of prescription drug misuse within households. When prescription or over-the-counter drugs are left in unlocked areas or kept after treatment ends, they may become accessible to children pets or improperly disposed of. Implementing safe storage practices and timely disposal effectively removes this hazard from the home.
Our Focus Areas
- Overdose Prevention & Response
- We work to keep people alive and connected to care through nasal naloxone distribution, partnership with local EMS agencies, and community education about overdose risk.
- Safe Medication Storage & Disposal
- Medications stored unsafely or disposed of improperly contribute to misuse and accidental ingestion. Safe disposal also keeps medications out of our waterways and landfills. We promote safe storage and disposal through education, permanent drop box locations across the county, medication take-back events, and community outreach.
- Easy Steps to Safely Get Rid of Unused Medicine
- Youth Substance Use Prevention
- We partner with public and private schools and youth-serving organizations to prevent underage drinking and substance use, and we support event planners in reducing underage and excessive drinking at community gatherings.
- Education & Prevention
- An informed community is a safer community. We build awareness about substance use, its impacts, and the resources available, and we work upstream by strengthening social connection and resilience.
- Stigma Reduction
- Fear of judgment keeps people from reaching out. We use people-first language and work to build a community where every person feels worthy of support.
- Treatment Access
- We work to make pathways to treatment and recovery visible and accessible, whether someone is seeking help for the first time or returning to care.
- Hope & Help Resource Guide
Join Us
We have several key initiatives underway and would welcome your involvement in any capacity.
Festival Toolkit
Free use of our toolkit for organizations, businesses, and event committees hosting large gatherings where alcohol will be served.