The Orange County Health Care Agency applied for a Category 1a rural area grant in the amount of $1,200,000. The Orange County Health Care Agency’s Closing the Gaps by Expanding Access for Reentry Clients program will provide (1) a transfer for those leaving Orange County Central Jail to a peer support recovery specialist for transportation and immediate connection to a case coordinator at one of four MAT and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment county clinics, (2) MAT and SUD treatment services by psychiatrists at the four county clinics, and (3) training by addiction specialist(s) for mental health workers and physicians in the county clinics on SUD and best-practices for working with MAT clients. This project serves Orange County, California, with approximately 3.2 million residents. The project includes partnerships between Correctional Health Services (CHS) and is supported by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Priority considerations addressed in this application include high rates of overdose deaths and a need to increase accessibility to treatment providers in the City of Santa Ana with areas of 25 percent poverty.
The Florida Department of Health will enhance the Florida Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) system, known as E-FORCSE (Electronic-Florida Online Reporting of Controlled Substance Evaluation Program), by employing an epidemiologist to provide data analysis to inform and guide health-care practitioners and policymakers and expanding existing outreach and education. E-FORCSE will also fund integration of PDMP information into clinical workflow by providing mini-grants to small physician practices and independent pharmacies.
The Indiana County Leaders Collaboration for Change (ICLCC) will establish and/or build upon existing collaborative relationships between first responders, the criminal justice system, child welfare and foster care, behavioral health, primary care and addiction service providers to identify, develop (or) enhance, and implement specific countywide programs designed to reduce the impact of opioids, stimulants, and other substances on individuals and communities. The counties will achieve this by developing (or) enhancing and implementing one or more of the following within their county: Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) model programs (new to Indiana), prebooking or postbooking treatment alternative-to-incarceration programs, education and prevention programs to connect law enforcement in schools, embed social services with law enforcement to rapidly respond to drug overdoses where children are impacted, and expand access to evidence-based treatment and recovery support services across the criminal justice system. This project serves individuals across Knox, Wayne, Fayette, Floyd, Clark, Allen, and Madison counties. The project includes partnerships between the Division of Mental Health and Addiction and seven county coalitions. Priority considerations addressed in this application include rural, high-poverty, and economically distressed regions.
The Purchase District Health Department applied for Category 1b suburban area grant funding in the amount of $900,000. The Purchase District Health Department program will implement a coordinated response to illicit opioids, psychostimulants, and counterfeit prescription drugs in Purchase. Four types of activities will be implemented: (1) provide naloxone for law enforcement and other first responders; (2) establish law enforcement and other first responder diversion programs; (3) conduct comprehensive, real-time, regional information collection, analysis, and dissemination; and (4) provide recovery support services, including recovery housing and peer recovery support services. This project serves eight counties totaling 196,563 people in western Kentucky. The project includes partnerships between law enforcement, first responders, and public health agencies who are active members of the Purchase Area Health Connections Opioid Task Force.
The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections proposes to provide a comprehensive plan to develop and implement a medically managed opiate withdrawal program for offenders with opiate use disorders entering Bayou Dorcheat Correctional Center (BDCC). The program will provide assessment and medication-assisted therapy (MAT) with buprenorphine; provide pre- and post-release MAT in the form of oral naltrexone and/or the extended-release naltrexone injection for opioid use disorder (OUD) offenders; provide pre-and post-release intensive substance abuse treatment, employing a comprehensive case plan and discharge plan; and provide pre- and post-release peer recovery support services. Partners include: Probation and Parole, Louisiana Department of Health’s Office of Behavioral Health, Northwest Louisiana Human Service District, and Ascent Powered by Sober Grid.
St. Tammany Parish will develop an information system to analyze and track the opioid client population across justice system and health intercepts in order to reduce cases of overdose and increase treatment and recovery service access. Key partners for this project include the 22nd Judicial District Court, the Safe Haven Advisory Board, St. Tammany Parish Hospital, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office and Jail, and the District Attorney’s Office.
The New Bedford Police Department (NBPD) will increase its capacity to offer outreach and referral services to individuals who have chosen diversion from prosecution and who have overdosed or been identified as at risk of overdosing. NBPD will (1) hire a full-time project manager to coordinate efforts within the department and with external partners; (2) add two recovery coaches to provide outreach and follow-up post-treatment coaching; (3) implement the Critical Incident Management System (CIMS) to house the necessary data to monitor and evaluate this effort and; (4) complete yearly evaluations to assess the overall effectiveness of the project in achieving its overall goals/objectives and evaluate the processes and implementation by tracking critical measures associated with the implementation of the program model. Kelley Research Associates will serve as the research partner for the proposed project.
The St. Mary’s County Health Department (SMCHD) is applying for a Category 1 award in the amount of $899,963. The St. Mary’s County Day Reporting Center project will provide community-based services and treatment to offenders under parole/probation in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. The offenders will live at home and report to the center on a daily basis. While at the center, the offenders receive various services including substance misuse counseling, anger management, moral reconation therapy, parenting skills, relapse prevention, mental health coordination, job skills, case management, educational classes, life skills, after-care planning, and touch-ups. This project serves a population of roughly 113,510 individuals in St. Mary's County. The project includes partnerships between SMCHD and St. Mary's County Detention and Rehabilitation Center (SMCDRC).
Atlantic City is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $600,000. The Atlantic City COSSAP program will focus on promoting public safety and supporting access to recovery services, strengthening data collection and sharing, aligning and maximizing resources, and preventing substance use. It will implement a comprehensive plan to reduce the risk of overdose death and enhance treatment and recovery engagement through recommendations made by the city’s overdose fatality review team, bringing together stakeholders with different perspectives and different data sets to improve public health and clinical practices. Strategies include enhanced outreach to overdose survivors and their families and enhanced targeting of high-frequency cases. Goals of the project include reducing the impact of opioids, stimulants, and other substances on individuals and communities, reducing the number of overdose fatalities, and mitigating the impacts on crime victims by supporting comprehensive, collaborative initiatives, in part by enhancing the proactive use of prescription drug monitoring programs to support clinical decision making and preventing the misuse and diversion of controlled substances. The project serves Atlantic City, which has a population of 37,999. The project includes partnerships with the city’s Director of Public Health, the Jewish Family Services Department, Southern Jersey Family Medical Center, AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Behavioral Health, the Atlantic City Police Department, the Atlantic City Municipal Court, and emergency medical services. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities.
Erie County will develop the Drug Overdose Response Team (DORT). DORT will be available 24/7 to respond on scene to calls about drug overdoses whenever first responders are involved, provide short-term case management, and conduct intensive follow up. DORT will serve the geographic area of Erie County with a population just under 75,000. This project includes partnerships with the Erie County Sheriff’s Office and Erie County Prosecutor’s Office.
The Ohio Board of Pharmacy will improve overall data quality by developing a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) enhancement that requires all users to automatically update their information within the system every six months and correct any missing information; create a treatment location tool for clinicians in the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System (OARRS) that uses dispensing data from the system and other external sources to locate active prescribers of medication-assisted treatment to treat opioid abuse; continue to review data in the state PDMP; and work with state, federal, and local law enforcement to initiate criminal and/or administrative investigations of health-care providers.
The York/Adams Drug and Alcohol Commission proposes to establish a new program to connect persons leaving prison with the appropriate evidence-based treatment and support services, which may include medication-assisted treatment; connect individuals who are on work-release with treatment and nontreatment services; and establish an integrated data system containing all law enforcement naloxone utilizations, emergency medical services naloxone utilizations, and hospital emergency department admissions and encourage prescription drug monitoring program usage.
The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) Enhancement Project will strengthen the organization of RIDOH’s PDMP, build dedicated staffing, engage stakeholders as well as plan and develop enhancements conforming to best practices. To further strengthen the PDMP, RIDOH is working with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) to secure additional CMS funding for actual implementation of PDMP enhancements that are going to be outputs of this grant.
The City of Charleston is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $900,000. The Charleston County Addiction Crisis Task Force Police Assisted Peer Recovery Program, a law enforcement diversion program that will fund three positions: one project coordinator to provide data collection and analysis services to all law enforcement agencies in Charleston County and two peer support specialists to support law enforcement officers while conducting outreach. The project will also expand Charleston’s existing partnership with the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI) to include officer training, oversight of peer support specialists, and the design of multimedia products to inform officers and the community of this outreach initiative. The project will fund Critical Incident Management Software (CIMS) to facilitate communication between police-based outreach programs and treatment facilities to track follow-up success, with support from Kelley Research Associates (KRA) and ODMAP to facilitate real-time overdose follow-up communication across the county. The peer support specialists will deploy with trained QRT officers for the purpose of engaging individuals who recently suffered an overdose or presented signs of a substance use disorder during an interaction with law enforcement. They will be responsible for developing recovery plans to support overdose survivors as they transition to treatment. Harm reduction kits that include fentanyl test strips, clean injection equipment, naloxone, gloves, and information on local resources so that overdose deaths and other negative health outcomes associated with drug use can be reduced will be made available to survivors and at other locations. The goal of the project is to achieve a 15 percent reduction in the number of days from overdose to outreach. The project serves the City of Charleston, which is the nexus of the Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area and has a population estimated at 713,000, with an estimated 411,000 in Charleston County. The project includes partnerships with the Charleston Police Department, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, the North Charleston Police Department, and the Mt. Pleasant Police Department, all of which have officers serving on the Charleston County Addiction Crisis Task Force (ACT Force). The project will engage Kelley Research Associates to implement the CIMS and to evaluate the program. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities. The project will also benefit individuals residing in high-poverty areas.
The Washington State Department of Health will improve the quality and accuracy of prescription monitoring program (PMP) data, expand use of PMP data for surveillance of opioid-related health outcomes, enhance the production and dissemination of education materials, and assist the Washington State Department of Health in advancing a vision of a modular, interoperation, and flexible architecture for public health surveillance.
