NOLA Opioid Survival Connection

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.

The City of New Orleans Health Department will implement the New Orleans Opioid Survival Connection to connect 200 overdose survivors per year to treatment services to reduce the prevalence of opioid misuse in New Orleans. Accidental opioid-related deaths in New Orleans increased dramatically from 2015 to 2016, and Louisiana currently ranks as 49th out of 50 states in United Health Care Foundation's report on state opioid response. The program will work to reduce the negative effects of opioid misuse in the city implementing taking an interdisciplinary approach to the problem. The project proposes to immediately provide interventions to overdose survivors in emergency departments, connect patients to services, and rigorously follow their cases to ensure a warm hand off to treatment centers. The project also calls for an ongoing research and monitoring program to evaluate program effectiveness. The City of New Orleans Health Department will partner with local emergency departments, as well as the Louisiana Public Health Institute as the project's action researcher.

CA/NCF