Berkeley County Day Report Center, Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Site-based Program

The Berkeley County Council, Berkeley County, West Virginia is applying for Category 1, Subcategory 1b in the amount of $900,000. The Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Site-Based Program (COSSAP) will provide an opportunity for Berkeley County to support those most vulnerable in the community to the opioid crisis – the children. Working in partnership with Berkeley County Schools, and the Martinsburg Initiative the program, hosted by the Berkeley Recovery Resource Center, will:

a.) Provide Peer Recovery services to address treatment and intervention needs primarily for students and secondarily, their family members;

b.) Strengthen social services where children have been impacted by drug addition to connect them to community services; and

c.) Provide sustaining funds to Project AWARE, an ongoing initiative of the Berkeley County School system whose overarching goal is to improve the mental health and wellbeing of all school-aged children (Kindergarten – 12th Grade).

The long term goal of the community is to curtail opioid use, supporting all citizens to lead productive, healthy lives. School-aged children in Berkeley County comprise 16.52% of the total population (19,654 pupils). Having the ability to provide streamlined services to a large proportion of the county at one time allows for a more comprehensive, systematic approach to the opioid crisis. The COSSAP program will reach beyond the student population, and connect families to community resources to support those in recovery or seeking recovery from substance use disorders (SUD) reducing opioid use and the number of overdoses. Ensuring children are not forgotten or left out of the recovery process is a priority of this program. Therefore, the hiring of a full-time social worker in the school system and youth case workers will guarantee effectiveness and have an impact across both the new juvenile drug court and existing juvenile and adult programs.

The project serves Berkeley County, West Virginia with a population of 119,171 and will include partnerships with Berkeley County Schools, EastRidge Health Systems, and The Martinsburg Initiative. Priority considerations addressed in the application include the disproportionate impact on the county by the abuse of illicit opioids and prescription drugs as evidenced in part by high rates of overdose deaths from heroin and other opioids, and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities. This project will incorporate the use of Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP) data collection tool to track near real-time fatal and non-fatal overdose data.