Tri-County Opioid Response Project

The Rural Communities Opioid Response ¬Implementation grant, funded in July 2020 through the Health Resources and Services Administration, serves Southeastern Oklahoma’s Choctaw, Pushmataha, and McCurtain Counties. The project specifically aims to address the systemic needs of the opioid epidemic. This Implementation Grant has established a ten member multi-sectoral consortium and numerous partnerships throughout the tri-county with a wide range of expertise in areas of substance abuse prevention and treatment, health care, mental and behavioral health, law enforcement and community health. Our goal for the grant is to strengthen and expand Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) prevention, treatment, and recovery service delivery and access within the unserved, high risk target counties to ultimately reduce associated morbidity and mortality in Southeastern Oklahoma.

Planning Focus Area

Prevention
The core prevention activities for the RCORP-Implementation Grant will work to reduce stigma around opioid use and other drugs while raising awareness concerning prevention of SUD/OUD. Additionally, the project will increase access to naloxone within the rural services area as well as provide training on overdose prevention and naloxone administration. The project will partner with community programs and groups to develop drug take-back programs in the tri-county area, while also increasing and supporting the use of school- and community-based prevention programs to prevent misuse of opioids and other substances.

Treatment
Core treatment activities will assist community partners with identifying what works or does not work for our communities. The core activities will include increased screening, as well as providing or referring to treatment patients with SUD/OUD who have infectious complications, including Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Viral Hepatitis, and Endocarditis, particularly among injecting users. The project will assist partners in becoming trained and/or qualified as Medication Assisted Treatment providers, increasing the number of providers who are able to identify and treat SUD/OUD, and provide professional development opportunities and recruitment incentives. The project will work to strengthen collaboration with law enforcement and first responders to enhance their capacity to respond and/or provide emergency treatment to those with SUD/OUD. The project will assist partners in identifying and optimizing reimbursement for treatment encounters through proper coding and billing training for providers and partners. Additionally, the project and its partners will help to enable individuals, families and caregivers to find, access, and navigate affordable treatments for SUD/OUD.

Recovery
The project will link community consortium members and partners with those in recovery to provide support throughout the recovery process. Core recovery activities will include assisting local county/city jails, Drug Courts, and District Attorney’s Office with the discharge process to link individuals to appropriate community resources. Community Recovery and Response Specialists (CRRS) will encourage and recruit individuals in the recovery community to become involved as Peer Recovery Support Specialists (PRSS), and in turn, develop—with the assistance of consortium members and partners—a layered recovery support community network.

What is Addiction

Addiction is described as “a disease of the mind, body, and spirit.” That’s because the condition involves a physical and psychological craving or compulsion to use mood-altering substances, and because recovery from addiction involves physical, psychological and emotional healing.

The Rural Communities Opioid Response Program-Planning Project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $1,000,000 with 100% percentage funded by HRSA/HHS and $0/0% funded by nongovernment source(s). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an an endorsement , by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.