County of San Luis Obispo - COSSAP

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.

The San Luis Obispo County Behavioral Health Program will provide recovery support services in the form of a recovery residence stay (drug- and alcohol-free living) to all COSSAP participants in San Luis Obispo County who need this level of care. All recovery residences provided funding with this grant will be MAT compliant in order to serve those with opiate use disorders. In addition, this grant will provide for a Behavioral Health Clinician III (Licensed Practitioner of Healing Arts) to conduct assessments of individuals leaving emergency rooms after an overdose for the law enforcement Community Action Teams (CATs) who pick up individuals for early intervention in the community, as well as assess those arrested, cited, and released from the county jail for drug offenses. A peer recovery coach will also be hired to provide important peer support, including modeling hope and recovery, mentoring, as well as engagement and community networking support, which has previously not been available from the agency. This project serves 200 individuals in the County of San Luis. The project includes partnerships between Superior Court, probation and sheriff departments, and local community hospital stakeholders.

CA/NCF