Tribal/Northern Michigan Focus COSSUP

The need to expand overdose prevention, SUD treatment, and other harm
reduction services is high in Northern Michigan. Like many rural areas, there are few options for
community-based SUD care and funding is limited. Both Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and its
northern Lower Peninsula lack critical community mental health infrastructure to ensure
continuity of service after acute drug-related crisis and access to harm reduction resources. This
dramatically impacts the health of northern communities, some of which have rates of hepatitis
C, a viral infection associated with injection drug use, that exceed Michigan’s densely populated urban counties. Moreover, health care and first responder resources are more geospatially
dispersed, leading to delays in treatment and access to critical harm reduction interventions.
However, current funding is insufficient to meet the demands of innovative prevention programs
to support northern counties in reducing morbidities and mortalities associated with SUD and
drug overdoses. Therefore, to build infrastructure and increase capacity for SUD services in
Northern Michigan and one centrally located, urban community, the Michigan State Police
(MSP), in collaboration with the Bay Mills Indian Community, Catholic Human Services,
Greater Flint Health Coalition, Harm Reduction Michigan, Nathan’s House, and the Michigan
Public Health Institute, is proposing several innovative prevention programs. MSP is submitting
a Category 2 application on behalf of ten counties in Northern and Central Michigan in
partnership with local tribal, public health, and community organizations and the University of
Michigan School of Nursing as the evaluation partner. The goal of Michigan’s proposal is to
offer SUD and overdose prevention services that will promote health during critical moments in
recovery and prevention. For example, a comprehensive education campaign for K-12, at-risk
youth and county-level overdose fatality reviews will be implemented as primary prevention
strategies. Likewise, drug checking and other harm reduction services will be used to prevent
overdose during active use. For consumers who are newly entering community services, MAT
programming will be expanded, and additional behavioral health clinicians will be recruited to
offer SUD counseling services. In Genesee County, a comprehensive, interdisciplinary recovery
community center that centralizes community-based services will be implemented. To help
prevent contact with the justice system, recovery coaches and jail-based SUD care will be
implemented to prepare consumers for re-entry. Finally, transitional recovery housing capacity
will be bolstered to provide stable housing and extended recovery support. Overall, these
projects will build critical infrastructure in Northern and Central Michigan for quality SUD care.