Albuquerque Peer to Peer: Opioid Coordination and Outreach Project

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.

In response to increasing rates of opioid overdose across New Mexico, the City of Albuquerque will implement the Albuquerque Peer to Peer program, which seeks to more effectively connect survivors with substance abuse treatment immediately after the overdose incident. Between January 2015 and June 2016, the City of Albuquerque Fire Department responded to nearly 600 opiate overdoses. Peer engagement specialists will ensure a streamlined connection between survivors and treatment. To complement this comprehensive and sustainable approach to treatment, the University of New Mexico’s Institute for Social Research will work to evaluate the impact of the program on the city’s population. The peer engagement specialists will work closely with the Albuquerque Police Department and a handful of community-based treatment providers to reduce the incidence of opioid overdoses in Albuquerque.

CA/NCF