UB's Center for Drug Policy and Enforcement Disperses $2M in Federal Grant Funding for Opioid Intervention Projects in Nine States
December 1, 2017
Contact: Office of Government and Public Affairs
Phone: 410.837.5739
Thirteen innovative opioid-intervention programs spread across nine states will receive grants of up to $135,000 in funding from the University of Baltimore's Center for Drug Policy and Enforcement (CDPE) to undertake research activities, and support and promote law enforcement and public health partnerships aimed at reducing overdose and other harms caused by opioid use and abuse. The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided $2 million to fund this effort. UB's CDPE, housed in the College of Public Affairs, is serving as the authority for all programmatic and financial aspects of the grant.
The center announced the grant program in September. The funding will help identify innovative solutions that move beyond traditional health and law enforcement policies.
"The challenge of addressing the opioid epidemic puts a tremendous burden on our affected families, communities and every level of government. These 13 new prevention and intervention initiatives, spearheaded by the University of Baltimore, are key steps towards addressing the opioid concern at the community level," said ONDCP Acting Director Richard Baum. "I am proud of the work the University of Baltimore has done and will continue to do moving forward as our nation struggles with opioid addiction."
"This is a great opportunity for the University of Baltimore," said Tom Carr, director of the CDPE. "Thanks to this grant, our researchers will be able to study 13 different programs operating in various parts of the country and gauge their effectiveness in reducing drug overdose incidents and other harms caused by opioid use and abuse."
"We are extremely proud of the work of our center, the Washington/Baltimore HIDTA, and all of our partners in this grant program. The applications we reviewed present innovative policy opportunities that will help to end this crisis," said Roger Hartley, dean of the College of Public Affairs. "These projects build new partnerships across agencies with diverse perspectives on how to address drug abuse. This spirit of working together will create the meaningful change we need. What we have done in the past is insufficient to tackle this current crisis."
The winning proposals, selected from a total of 43 applications, are listed by state as follows:
West Virginia:
- The Martinsburg Initiative - $135,000
The Martinsburg Initiative (TMI) will apply the pioneering science of Dr. Vincent Felitti’s Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study through a neighborhood-school-based and community policing strategy that begin with the family. Through a partnership between the Martinsburg Police Department, Berkeley County Schools, and Shepherd University, TMI will expand community resources and link law enforcement, schools, communities, and families in a dynamic partnership that will assess participants’ ACE scores and subsequently link them to necessary resources and supports.
- Morgantown Sober Living, Inc. - $134,996
Morgantown Sober Living, Inc. will utilize certified peer recovery coaches (CPRCs) to provide an essential link between recent overdose survivors and available local services with goal to prevent subsequent overdoses and overdose fatalities. CPRCs will respond to referrals, engage and build trust with individual patients, clients and offenders, and encourage clients to enter and remain in drug treatment.
- West Virginia University Research Center, West Virginia - $134,989
Bridging Public Health & Public Safety to Reduce Overdose is a community-level project that will engage multiple stakeholders in the analysis of overdose trends and generate local solutions and build on existing community assets. The project will expand the Berkeley County Health Department Harm Reduction Steering Committee; perform a cross-system analysis of overdose trends to identify outreach priorities; assess barriers to/facilitators of overdose prevention; cultivate a peer recovery coach/navigator network; and, develop strategies to expand the reach of prevention, harm reduction, and recovery initiatives throughout the county.
Ohio:
- The MetroHealth System, Ohio - $135,000
The MetroHealth System will employ professionals to identify and assess inmates with an opioid use disorder. Pre-trial alternatives to incarceration and ongoing medically-assisted treatment will serve as a conduit to maintain appropriate levels of addiction treatment for inmates upon their release from incarceration.
- WestCare Ohio, Inc., Ohio - $134,975
WestCare Ohio will implement a recovery-oriented systems of care model utilizing the evidence-based practices of peer-recovery support coaching and motivational interviewing. The project will expand local initiatives involving law enforcement and health and human service agencies and will evaluate their efficacy in connecting low income, socially isolated, persons to services including substance use treatment as a part of a Recovery Oriented System of Care.
Massachusetts:
- Boston Medical School - $134,587
Forecasting the Impact of Corrections-based MOUD in Massachusetts will assess the potential of providing medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in Massachusetts state and county correctional facilities. The forecast will generate critically important evidence to inform effective policy-making around MOUDs in correctional settings. Funds will support analyses of opioid mortality, including location, socio-demographic characteristics, incarceration history treatment history, past overdose, homelessness and other variables on nearly 6 million individuals.
- Tufts University - $135,000
The Lowell Peer Education and Risk Reduction Services program will facilitate a collaborative effort between academic institutions, community-based risk reduction programs, and local public health and safety officials to expand upon existing efforts to bolster harm reduction services. Funding will support the development of a public health and public safety advocacy movement to seek opportunities for long term sustainability and expansion of client-centered, community-engaged risk reduction programs.
Arizona:
- Kingman Police Department - $128,912
The Kingman Police Department will use funds to increase early intervention and harm reduction strategies as a mechanism to navigate individuals into effective treatment and resource options. The project will include multi-sector collaboration among law enforcement, courts, probation, local substance abuse treatment providers, the local public health department, and harm reduction providers to employ case management in an opioid diversion and incarceration alternative project for early offenders.
Delaware:
- New Castle County Government - $118,628
The New Castle County Division of Police will utilize funds to support collaboration between law enforcement, treatment providers, hospitals, peer counselors and individuals struggling with addiction. A primary liaison will identify and provide ongoing support and resources to participants and lead outreach initiatives and streamline access to treatment services, including medication-assisted treatment, and maintain engagement among participants.
Connecticut:
- Ledge Light Health District/Special District Government - $135,000
The Ledge Light Health District will work to address the local opioid epidemic by developing coordinated access to treatment and recovery support services. Through these efforts, collaborative partners will create a system of low-barrier, equitable, and timely access to medication based treatment for opioid use disorders. This system of coordinated access will connect people with support services that will help them stay engaged in treatment and achieve remission.
Rhode Island:
- The Providence Center - $134,996
The Providence Center will implement Safe Stations, a program allowing fire department personnel to respond to individuals living with opioid addiction who walk-in to fire stations. The project will also support on-call recovery coaches to provide peer-based recovery support services and connections to critical services. Collaborating organizations will work together to ensure that individuals maintain connections to services to help them along their path toward recovery.
Texas:
- Baylor College of Medicine (Perinatal Opioid Use) - $134,999
The Aligning Response to Perinatal Opioid Use to Improve Maternal and Neonatal Health Outcomes project is focused on aligning policies and practices for responding to opioid use during the pregnancy and postpartum periods between obstetrics, birthing hospitals, child protective service, treatment, and law enforcement. The project will establish a cross-sector collaborative whose core goal will be to analyze and align policies and practices for responding to opioid use during the pregnancy and postpartum period.
Pennsylvania:
- Prevention Point Philadelphia - $134,320
Prevention Point Philadelphia will facilitate meaningful collaborations between organizations that will enhance the community’s capacity to respond to opioid misuse and addiction by expanding treatment access, supporting ancillary care management and recovery services. Project funds will be used to implement a "warm handoff" initiative utilizing multiples modes of referral and to expand access to medically-assisted treatment services.
The Center for Drug Policy and Enforcement, which was announced last April, is a leading regional policy effort to resolve the nation’s drug problems and addiction issues, including the ongoing opioid epidemic. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, in 2015 an estimated 12.5 million Americans misused prescription opioids, while more than 33,000 died and hundreds of thousands more experienced an overdose requiring treatment. The drain on the nation’s economy, whether it is in healthcare costs, job losses or the breakdown of families, is now in the tens of billions of dollars.
UB's center focuses on initiatives to both reduce the broad range of criminal activities associated with drugs, including trafficking and violence. It also works to advance public-health solutions to addiction.
Learn more about the University of Baltimore's College of Public Affairs.
Learn more about the work of the Center for Drug Policy and Enforcement.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the College of Public Affairs, the Merrick School of Business, the UB School of Law and the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences.