Rural Project Examples from FORHP Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP)
Promising Examples
Nurse Navigator and Recovery Specialist Outreach Program
Updated/reviewed December 2024
- Need: To properly address and treat patients who have concurrent substance use disorders and chronic healthcare issues.
- Intervention: A referral system utilizes community health workers (CHWs) in a drug and alcohol treatment setting. A registered nurse helps with providers' medication-assisted treatment programs.
- Results: This program has reduced hospital emergency visits and hospital readmissions for patients since its inception.
Other Project Examples
CMH Addiction Recovery Program
Updated/reviewed November 2025
- Need: To help individuals and families impacted by substance use disorder access treatment and counseling in rural Missouri.
- Intervention: The CMH Addiction Recovery Program provides medication-assisted treatment, counseling, peer and family support, and other related services within a Rural Health Clinic.
- Results: The program operates 5 days a week and sees 400 patients each month.
One Health Recovery Doulas
Updated/reviewed November 2024
- Need: To support pregnant and parenting women with a history of substance use, mental health, or co-occurring disorders in rural areas of Montana.
- Intervention: One Health, a consortium of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), developed a team of "recovery doulas" – individuals who are dual-certified as doulas and peer-support specialists. The One Health recovery doula program offers group and individual services to women and their partners from pregnancy through the first years of parenthood.
- Results: A team of four recovery doulas (or doulas-in-training) employed by One Health offer services in 8 rural eastern Montana counties. One Health has also successfully trained and certified 35 Peer Recovery Doulas statewide through their Peer Recovery Doula certification curriculum.
First Day Forward
Added March 2024
- Need: Enhanced support for people with substance use disorders leaving jail and reentering communities in rural northeastern Kentucky.
- Intervention: A reentry program that uses peer support specialists to teach cognitive life skills, obtain essential identification documents, and help people create and follow personalized case plans before and after their release.
- Results: More than 420 people have been served by First Day Forward, with recidivism rates significantly lower among people who successfully completed the program.
