Linkage to Care Across Minnesota

The Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Site-based Program (COAP) was developed as part of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) legislation. COAP’s purpose is to provide financial and technical assistance to states, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to plan, develop, and implement comprehensive efforts to identify, respond to, treat, and support those impacted by the opioid epidemic. The Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) has been incorporated into the FY 2019 COAP solicitation. The purpose of the Harold Rogers PDMP is to improve collaboration and strategic decision making among regulatory and law enforcement agencies and public health entities to address prescription drug and opioid abuse, save lives, and reduce crime.

COAP aims to reduce opioid abuse and the number of overdose fatalities, as well as to mitigate the impacts on crime victims by supporting comprehensive, collaborative initiatives. The program also supports the implementation, enhancement, and proactive use of PDMPs to support clinical decision making and prevent the abuse and diversion of controlled substances. Grantees are prohibited from using federal funds to support activities that violate the Controlled Substances Act.

The objective of Category 2 is to support states in their efforts to implement, enhance, or evaluate effective opioid-related efforts within the criminal justice system.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) will support the “Timely Treatment, Strengthened Service and Effective Evaluation for Overdose Prevention: Linkage to Care Across Minnesota” project to achieve the following objectives in eight sites:
•Reduce opioid misuse and opioid overdose death by supporting local efforts to implement effective opioid overdose prevention projects.
•Support local efforts to implement treatment and recovery support linkage activities serving individuals vulnerable for drug overdose.
•Support implementation of local multidisciplinary intervention models to bring together stakeholders with different perspectives and different information to identify drug overdose prevention strategies.
•Enhance access to naloxone among people who use drugs to decrease overdose deaths.
•Enhance successful local multidisciplinary overdose prevention activities to decrease overdose deaths.
•Evaluate the extent to which additional funding to eight opioid overdose prevention projects, referred to as Tackling Opioid Use With Networks (TOWN), impact the incidence of overdose in communities.
•Create a TOWN Manual in collaboration with the communities to support the expansion and sustainability of the TOWN model.

CA/NCF