The opioid crisis seems to loom large enough that it appears impossible to tackle. But as with any giant, taking it down begins with attacking its foundation.

That is what part of the mission of the Monadnock Community Hospital Be the Change – Behavioral Health Task Force is trying to do. That foundation, said Laura Gingras, vice president of community relations at the hospital and a member of the committee, is education awareness.

Most opioid addictions begin with prescription pills. That’s why it’s important to make patients aware of the risks when they are prescribed an opioid medication and monitor their health as they are treated. And on the other end, it is important to ensure that when a person is finished taking their medication, it doesn’t end up hanging around in a medicine cabinet.

With assistance from Be the Change, the Peterborough Police Department has received a grant that will allow it to install a permanent “drug take-back” box where residents can deposit unused or expired prescription medications.

One focus of the federal drug take-back program is to remove opioids from medicine cabinets. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, over half of teens abusing controlled prescription cases get them from a family member or friend, often from their home’s medicine cabinet.

But it’s not advisable to dispose of the drugs by flushing them – when that happens, drugs could potentially enter the water source.

Residents should instead take unused medications to designated drug take-back locations for proper disposal. But in the Monadnock region, many people have to wait for a yearly Drug Take-Back Day, when many local police departments have dedicated times they will accept prescription and over the counter medications – while surrounding towns including Hillsborough and Keene have year-round take-back boxes, Peterborough will be the first in our area to install one.

Getting potential opioids off the market is one step, said Gingras, but the problem is systemic. Behavioral health – which Gingras said often goes hand in hand with substance abuse – is a rising need in the eastern Monadnock region.

In 2013, when Monadnock Community Hospital conducted an assessment of the unmet health needs in the region, three of the top ten identified health needs were related to either mental health or substance abuse. In 2015, that number had risen to seven out of 1. The Be the Change committee was one of the ways the hospital has been trying to respond to those needs.

“The behavioral health component was obviously a glaring need, and though it was sort of outside the scope of hospital services, we knew that we had to get involved in some way,” said Gingras.

MCH does provide some behavioral health services, with a behavioral health practice with two psychologists and two psychiatrists, and two licensed clinical social workers at the hospital, as well as partnering with Monadnock Family Services to refer patients to licensed alcohol and drug abuse counselors, said Gingras.

There needs to be policy changes on a national and state level, she added.

That change is already underway with legislation from the bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA, with additional legislation expected to see the legislative floor this fall.

But while CARA increases availability of recovery care and helps get over-subscribed opioids off the street by allowing patients to request a partial fill of a prescription, it is only the beginning of the needed changes.

In the meantime, the Be the Change Task Force works to increase awareness of the opioid crisis through community forums and holding trainings and distributing kits of Narcan, an overdose reversal drug.

The Be the Change Task Force will be continuing that mission at the Wellness Festival in Peterborough from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., hosting short trainings on the use of Narcan – which is administered through a nasal spray – at every half hour mark.

In addition, they are also continuing to educate the public on one crucial piece that is missing from the CARA legislation – mental health.

In addition to the work they do with substance abuse, the other half of behavioral health is just as important, said Gingras. The group holds forums on suicide prevention, and recently planned a showing of the Disney film “Inside Out” to begin a conversation on processing emotions in a healthy way.