Sullivan County Overdose Response Team (SCORT)

The Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP) was developed as part of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) legislation. COSSAP’s purpose is to provide financial and technical assistance to states, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to develop, implement, or expand comprehensive efforts to identify, respond to, treat, and support those impacted by illicit opioids, stimulants, and other drugs of abuse.

The objective of Category 1 is to encourage and support the development of comprehensive, locally driven responses to opioids, stimulants, and other substances that expand access to supervision, treatment, and recovery support services across the criminal justice system; support law enforcement and other first responder diversion programs for nonviolent drug offenders; promote education and prevention activities; and address the needs of children impacted by substance abuse.

This project serves Sullivan County, Tennessee, population 157,668. The purpose of the project is to provide continued support, enhancement, and expansion of the COAP-funded initial pilot multidisciplinary overdose response team in Sullivan County. This project will build upon the existing coordinated multidisciplinary response, which includes law enforcement, behavioral health service providers (behavioral health liaisons), a full-time project coordinator, and two full-time peer specialists with one serving as a victim advocate (victim outreach specialist). The project broadens outreach and self-referral capacity to expand engagement with individuals seeking assistance with recovery and are determined to be at risk for overdose. The project includes partnerships between the case management team and law enforcement (Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, including jail staff, Bristol Police Department, Kingsport Police Department, drug task force, treatment partners (Frontier Health, Kingsport Family Recovery, Comprehensive Community Services, and Volunteer Behavioral Health), community support (Recovery Resources), and many others. Priority considerations addressed in this application include high rates of overdose deaths and the related high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin or other opioids.

CA/NCF