BATON ROUGE - Opioid overdose deaths are declining in East Baton Rouge Parish. The parish is three points higher than the national average when it comes to helping people survive an opioid overdose.

Mental Health and substance abuse expert and advocate Tonja Myles says there is still more work to do.

"Here in Baton Rouge, we do have some of the best numbers in the country when it comes to drug overdose death, but we are not satisfied, and so this opioid abatement money is blood money of people who lost their lives behind a lie," Tonja Myles said.

This week, the East Baton Rouge Metro Council approved the distribution of funding from the Louisiana opioid abatement settlement to several agencies that work in the community, helping those struggling with substance abuse.

"We need to make sure that those dollars are being spent on people who are doing the real work. Organizations throughout the city. We call it public safety, public help, public hope. There's a lot of money for the next 16 years, millions of dollars, billions across the country, and so we need to make sure that money is going to programs that are working and there is some accountability over that," Myles said.

The funding, totaling around $3 million, will go towards treatment and recovery efforts for those struggling with substance abuse, along with preventing the misuse of opioids.

The Florida-based organization, Victoria's Voice Foundation, is receiving over $200,000 from that settlement to educate the parents and youth on opioid use.

The organization is working to partner with local Baton Rouge organizations to help in reducing the numbers of opioid overdose deaths.

"We are going to be doing the vital signs presentations for parents, and we're going to teach the local coalitions and others, like church groups, on how to conduct those themselves," Victoria's Voice Foundation Corporate Partnerships Director, Mark Cady-Archilla, said.

Funds will also go towards the District Attorney's office, 19th JDC, and the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to support those involved with opioids.

The East Baton Rouge Office of the Public Defender and Juvenile Court will also receive funding to address those criminally involved with opioids. The coroner's office will also get funding to address opioid deaths.