PRESS ADVISORY: Details Expected Today on New Funds for Ohio Aimed at Opioid Misuse and Overdoses
Washington, DC — Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) expects this morning to receive details on federal funding awarded to the State of Ohio under three health-related programs aimed at addressing the national epidemic of opioid misuse and overdoses.
In Ohio, deaths and overdoses from heroin and opioids have reached epidemic proportions. According to data released last week by the Ohio Department of Health, opioid overdoses killed a record 3,050 people in Ohio in 2015, more than one-third of them from fentanyl, a super-potent opiate often mixed with heroin.
When the data includes heroin and opioids, Cuyahoga County has seen 1,386 people die from overdoses between 2010 to 2015, and deaths in 2016 are expected to exceed 500 in number, nearly double the total from 2015, according to William Denihan, the chief executive officer of the Cuyahoga County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board. In Lucas County, 113 people died of heroin or other opioid overdoses in 2015, with roughly 3,000 reported non-fatal overdoses, according to law enforcement sources.
The grant awards made today focus on opioid misuse and overdoses. According to a preliminary notice from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, a “total of $53 million will be distributed to 44 States, four tribes and the District of Columbia to improve access to treatment for opioid use disorders, reduce opioid related deaths, and strengthen drug abuse prevention efforts. In addition, funding will also support improved data collection and analysis around opioid misuse and overdose as well as better tracking of fatal and nonfatal opioid-involved overdoses.”
Moreover, the funds will focus “on improving opioid prescribing practices; expanding access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder; and increasing the use of naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses. The initiative concentrates on evidence-based strategies that can have the most significant impact on the crisis. But additional funding is necessary to ensure that every American who wants to get treatment for opioid use disorder will have access.”
Ohio will be awarded funds under one program administered by the Substances Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, or SAMHSA, and two programs oversee by the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC.
Specific details on the amounts allocated to Ohio will be made available the morning of Wednesday, August 31, 2016.
From the HHS announcement:
SAMHSA programs:
• The Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Prescription Drugs Grants provide up to $9 million to 21 states and four tribes to strengthen drug abuse prevention efforts, and to raise awareness about the dangers of sharing medications and work with pharmaceutical and medical communities on the risks of overprescribing. The program also seeks to raise community awareness and bring prescription drug abuse prevention activities and education to schools, communities, parents, prescribers, and their patients.
CDC programs:
• The Prescription Drug Overdose: Prevention for States program provides up to $11.5 million in supplemental funding to 14 states. This supplemental funding will support the ongoing work of awardees, allowing awardees to address issues such as high overdose death rates in tribal communities and improve toxicology and drug screening. States can use this funding to enhance prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), further prevention efforts, and execute and evaluate strategies to improve safe prescribing practices.
• The Enhanced State Surveillance of Opioid-Involved Morbidity and Mortality program is awarding $4.27 million in funds to 12 states to better track fatal and nonfatal opioid-involved overdoses, specifically to 1) increase the timeliness of reporting nonfatal and fatal opioid overdose and associated risk factors; disseminate surveillance findings to key stakeholders working to prevent opioid-involved overdoses; and 3) share data with CDC to support improved multi-state surveillance of and response to opioid-involved overdoses.
More information about SAMHSA grants and the grantees is available at: https://www.samhsa.gov/grants/
More information about CDC grants and the grantees is available at: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/states/index.html.
More information on the Prescription Drug Overdose: Prevention for States program: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/states/state_prevention.html
More information on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Opioid Initiative: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/Factsheet-opioids-061516.pdf
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