Family-Centered Services in Tennessee Adult Recovery Courts

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.

The Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Site-based Program aims to reduce opioid abuse and the number of overdose fatalities, as well as to mitigate the impacts on crime victims. The program also supports the implementation, enhancement, and proactive use of prescription drug monitoring programs to support clinical decision making and prevent the abuse and diversion of controlled substances.

The Technology-assisted Treatment Projects category is designed to pilot, in up to five states, projects that demonstrate how technology can be used to expand treatment and recovery support services to individuals who abuse illicit and prescription opioids and have limited access to treatment and recovery services due to geographic isolation.

Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services will support the expansion of behavioral telehealth care services in nine counties in Tennessee, seven of which are designated as rural-based according to the Economic Research Service Rural-Urban Commuting Areas definition. Each of the participating counties has a poverty rate above the statewide average.

CA/NCF