Cayuga County Comprehensive Substance Use Diversion Program

The proposed Comprehensive Substance Use Diversion Program strives to reduce overdose fatalities in Cayuga County by embedding recovery peer support and other targeted services at specific points of contact for individuals with substance use disorder and diverting them from justice-involvement toward treatment and recovery. Local surveillance data shows that fatal overdoses overwhelmingly involve opioids and psychostimulants and increasingly impact women. This program puts a priority on providing services for women and people of color who have been historically underserved and will address specific challenges for people in crisis, people entering the legal and/or child welfare system, and people who have been released from treatment and/or incarceration. The proposed diversion program will use the Sequential Intercept Model to expand or complement existing services in each of the intercepts and other points of contact. The program intends to fill six identified gaps:

Intercept 0:

Naloxone education and distribution to rural law enforcement/first responders to enhance public safety and response during overdose emergencies
Embedded peer support and advocacy in child welfare departments (before justice involvement) to increase positive relationships, treatment retention, family unifications 

Intercept 1:

911 diversion of people in crisis to mental health professionals to provide immediate care and stabilization and diversion from law enforcement and emergency room

Intercept 2:

Rapid linkage to MOUD and enhanced programming for Intervention Court participants and outreach to increase referrals to Intervention Court, prioritize treatment over incarceration, improve health and social outcomes

Intercept 4:

Enhanced post-incarceration/post-treatment peer support to ensure continued recovery support, promote treatment retention, provide support for securing job training and housing options
Embedded peer support and advocacy in child welfare departments (after justice involvement) to promote positive relationships, treatment retention, family unifications 

The program will implement the following activities/allowable uses (approximate budget estimations in parentheses):

1. Naloxone for law enforcement and first responders (12%), 2. embedding peer support in different settings (39%), 3. law enforcement/first responder diversion programs (2%), 4. court programming to prioritize and expedite treatment and recovery services for individuals at high risk of overdose (13%), 5. evidence-based substance use disorder treatment related to opioids, stimulants, and other illicit drugs (0%), and 6. recovery housing with peer support (5%). Furthermore, the program will pursue 7. comprehensive, real-time, regional information collection, analysis, and dissemination via the development of a publicly-accessible overdose data dashboard (8%).

The applicant is seeking priority consideration 1(A) as outlined on page 15 of the proposal narrative.