Berkeley County Volunteer Support Network

The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) Program is the first major federal substance use disorder treatment and recovery legislation in 40 years and the most comprehensive effort to address the opioid epidemic. CARA establishes a comprehensive, coordinated, and balanced strategy through enhanced grant programs that expand prevention and education efforts while also promoting treatment and recovery. The Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Site-based program was developed as part of the CARA legislation signed into law on July 22, 2016. In FY 2017, the Overdose Outreach Projects will provide funding and technical assistance to units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to plan, develop, and implement comprehensive diversion and alternatives to incarceration programs that expand outreach, treatment, and recovery efforts to individuals impacted by the opioid epidemic who come into contact with the justice system. Funding may be used to connect survivors of a non-fatal overdose with treatment providers or a peer recovery coach in an emergency department; provide survivors of non-fatal overdoses, and their friends and family, with access to naloxone and other recovery support services; provide prioritized—ideally immediate—access to detox and treatment services; overdose prevention education and community outreach and engage a research partner to conduct action research providing skills and assistance in identifying performance measures, tracking measures to assist in the improvement of program implementation and fidelity, providing subject matter expertise and guidance.

Aiming to reduce drug overdose rates in Martinsburg, West Virginia, the Berkeley County Council will implement the Berkeley County Volunteer Support Network. In 2014, Berkeley County had approximately 71 percent as many fatal overdoses per 100,000 people as Baltimore. To remedy the issue, the project strives to expand direct services to overdose survivors and improve the city’s ability to connect individuals to treatment services. Funds will also be utilized to conduct an analysis of the project’s effectiveness. The project will collaborate with the Berkeley County Health Department, the Berkeley County Day Report Center, the West Virginia State Police, the Martinsburg Police Department, and West Virginia University Medicine.

CA/NCF