Substance Use Public Health Emergency Response

The Saint Louis County Department of Public Health (DPH) in Missouri is
applying for a Category 1a units of local government in an urban area or large county award in
the amount of $533,334 per year for three years. The Saint Louis County Department of Public
Health will be implementing the Substance Use Public Health Emergency Response (SUPHER)
Program, which will implement a range of allowable grant activities, including embedding
support staff at any intercept of the Sequential Intercept model, evidence-based substance use
disorder treatment (such as MAT, harm reduction activities, and recovery support services) for
populations leaving the jail, real-time data collection, and other field-initiated projects that bring
together justice, behavioral health, and public health practitioners. The SUPHER Program will
design, develop, and refine outreach within DPH Corrections Medicine (CM) to identify, refer,
and coordinate induction/maintenance of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) and increase
linkage to care and social services navigation for justice involved individuals. The SUPHER
program will also create a multi-disciplinary coordinating body of justice services, behavioral
health, and public health practitioners to establish an overdose fatality review (OFR) board to
review cases, share and provide data, and identify intervention points for outreach and education.
Lastly, the SUPHER program will assist and expand Project EAGLE FANG, a project within the
toxicology lab of DPH’s Medical Examiner (ME) office that tests drug paraphernalia obtained
from the scene of fatal overdoses and will allow SUPHER to identify emerging trends in drugs
associated with fatal overdose. It is through these three objectives that SUPHER will work
towards the goal of: Address the needs of justice involved individuals (JIIs) and reduce drug
overdoses. This program serves Saint Louis County, Missouri, with approximately 1 million
residents. The program includes partnerships with the Saint Louis County Department of Justice
Services (DJS) Buzz Westfall Center, DPH CM, and DPH’s ME Office that continues to build
upon system changes for OUD prevention, treatment and recovery that have been activated. This
project will focus explicitly on reaching high-risk and vulnerable populations (justice-involved
persons, racial minorities (Black males specifically), active drug users and at-risk youth) through
continued implementation of Missouri’s Medication Frist’ treatment model for OUD, the aim is
to increase access to evidence-based medications and improve transitions of care upon discharge.