HHC Eskenazi Health IEMS Project POINT

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 Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County will tackle opioid misuse in Indianapolis, Indiana by increasing community access to naloxone and connecting high-risk, opioid misusing patients to undergo treatment for substance misuse. The project, dubbed Project POINT (Planned Outreach, Intervention, Naloxone, and Treatment), is a comprehensive response to Indiana’s opioid crisis. The project is operated by the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, with close collaboration from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD), and the City of Indianapolis Office of Public Health and Safety. An additional project goal is to work with the Center for Criminal Justice Research to integrate data between local law enforcement, public safety, treatment, and public health agencies. Project POINT will also work with the city and the IMPD to develop the Mobile Crisis Assistance Team (M-CAT), which will be an integrated health care model that pools expertise from police, paramedics, and crisis specialists. The Indiana University Center for Criminal Justice Research will serve as the action research partner.

CA/NCF