Answer Addiction

Tag: federal programs

  • Recovery Housing Program For Rural Areas Launched By USDA, HHS

    Recovery Housing Program For Rural Areas Launched By USDA, HHS

    “The opioid crisis has hit rural communities hard, and we need to leverage all possible partnerships to support these communities,” said an HHS official.

    A new federal program will allow nonprofit organizations to purchase homes in rural communities for use as transitional housing for individuals in recovery from substance use disorder.

    The initiative is a joint effort between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and aims to address the national opioid crisis by providing greater access and support to rural areas, which have shouldered a substantial portion of the epidemic’s overdose and death tolls.

    USDA Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development, Anne Hazlett, said in a press release that the program is part of President Donald Trump’s policy to address opioid dependency, which he declared a national public health emergency in late 2017.

    Through coordinated efforts between the USDA’s Rural Development and HHS’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), non-profit organizations will be able to purchase USDA’s Real Estate Owned (REO) single-family housing properties in rural communities at a discounted price for use as housing, treatment, job training and other services for individuals in recovery for substance abuse issues.

    The initiative extends the two organizations’ collaborative efforts, which were launched in 2018, when SAMHSA supplemented USDA Cooperative Extension grants to help communities in the fight against opioid abuse.

    “We know that the opioid crisis has hit rural communities hard, and we need to leverage all possible partnerships to support these communities,” said Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, HHS Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use. “Housing plays a vital part in the recovery process for those living with opioid use disorders.”

    The opioid crisis has cut a particularly devastating path through rural communities in America. As the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) noted, only 20% of the U.S population lives in areas designated as rural communities, but the rate of opioid-related overdose deaths in such locations is 45% higher than in metro counties.

    Studies have found that the rate of babies born with opioid withdrawal symptoms and teens who use opioids is much higher in rural communities.

    Adding to the problem is a lack of health care facilities—83 rural hospitals have closed since 2010—and access to mental health and substance treatment facilities. According to the NRHA, in 55% of all American counties, most of which are considered rural, there are no psychologists, psychiatrists or social workers.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Experimental Addiction Treatment Program May Soon Lose Funding

    Experimental Addiction Treatment Program May Soon Lose Funding

    The medication-assisted mental health and addiction programs were showing promising results, but are running out of time.

    A federally funded experimental medication-assisted treatment program may be on its last legs, according to The Washington Post. The program, which has shown some promise in combating the opioid crisis in the year it’s been running, could dissolve as soon as March.

    If the program disappears, up to 9,000 patients would suddenly find themselves without a program and around 3,000 clinic personnel would be out of their jobs, according to an analysis by the National Council for Behavioral Health (NCBH). Because the clinics have to give their workers a 60-to-90 day advance notice for termination, the clinics could see staff leaving to seek other jobs as soon as January.

    Combating the opioid crisis has consistently been a bipartisan issue that both Democrats and Republicans have committed to working together on, but funding for the treatment programs was notably absent from Congress’ $8.4 billion budget that was passed in October. Speaking for the NCBH, Rebecca Farley David speculated that Congress got cold feet when they saw the projected cost of funding the treatment package: $520 million.

    “There was a lot of concern in Congress about the overall cost of the package,” she said.

    The program was conceptualized in 2014 through a set of standards, dubbed the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, and was set to receive two years of flexible funding. In its first year of service in 2017, the program served around 381,000 patients according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Now, the program is due to expire in Oklahoma and Oregon in March and Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, and New York in May.

    These states are trying to come up with alternate avenues for funding, including Medicaid waivers or applying for grants to keep paying staff after the federal funds dry up.

    It’s not just the patients and clinic workers that would suffer if these programs end. Law enforcement and the justice system also benefited from the program. If officers pick up intoxicated suspects, they cannot rely on these programs and instead have to take the time to drive the prisoner to an emergency room. Inmates being released from Niagara County jail relied on these programs to automatically continue treatment.

    “When people fail to make that first appointment upon release, we’ve lost them,” said Deputy Chief Daniel Engert. “Their condition deteriorates, they reoffend, and then they end up back in jail, or worse, they end up dead.”

    View the original article at thefix.com