Mason County Opioid Abuse Overdose Outreach Program

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.

From 2009 to 2014, deaths related to heroin have doubled in Mason County, Washington; the county has the fourth highest rate of deaths 2011-2013 attributed to opiates, with a rate of over 14.1 per 100,000 as compared to the state rate of 8.6 per 100,000. The project will include a public education campaign and a prescription drug take-back components. Project goals include reducing the number of opioid-related deaths, increasing the number of opioid users who own naloxone take-home kits, and to improve public awareness about the dangers of opioids and treatment services.

CA/NCF