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Rural Response to the Opioid Crisis – News

News stories from the past 60 days.

Nov 29, 2023 - A Louisiana hospital has received funding to address opioid misuse. Discusses medication assisted treatment, access to naloxone, access to services in rural areas, and prevention efforts for youth.
Source: The Current
Nov 16, 2023 - Highlights the harm reduction strategy one Wisconsin tribe has implemented to reduce mortality from the opioid crisis. Discusses stigma, the high rates of overdose deaths for native people in Wisconsin, and the potential for harm reduction to lead to effective treatment. Describes their successes as a model for other Indigenous communities as well as harm reduction in general.
Source: STAT News
Nov 16, 2023 - Describes the hub-and-spoke model of opioid use disorder treatment pioneered in Vermont and the impact of a new synthetic drug on the effectiveness of the system.
Source: News From The States, KFF Health News
Nov 15, 2023 - A new research center studying opioid effects in infant and children is being built in Arkansas. Part of the mission is to research and train rural Arkansas hospitals on new methods for treating addiction in newborns with the goal of expanding treatment access nationwide.
Source: Axios
Nov 9, 2023 - Highlights the impact of a naloxone vending machine in a rural Vermont community. Describes the trend to offer naloxone not just through vending machines but also through awareness programming throughout rural America.
Source: The Daily Yonder
Oct 27, 2023 - Describes a project that trains rural primary care providers in New Mexico on offering medication-assisted treatment to patients with opioid use disorder (MOUD). Discusses how the Project ECHO model has increased MOUD care access in rural areas.
Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Oct 19, 2023 - Describes a program in Nevada providing services to pregnant and postpartum women who use drugs. Recent federal funding is allowing them to expand into rural areas. Notes that rural areas have been most impacted by the opioid epidemic and also have barriers to treatment access.
Source: KFF Health News
Oct 19, 2023 - Call for experts to participate in a workshop on research needs for harm reduction strategies for people who use drugs. Areas of expertise include opioid use disorder, harm reduction strategies, drug data collection and program evaluation, drug policy, and lived experience. The deadline to submit nominations is October 25th.
Source: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Oct 4, 2023 - The Substance Abuse and Mental Heath Services Administration (SAMHSA) will hold a virtual tribal consultation session on the Tribal Opioid Response (TOR) funding methodology on November 9, 2023. Includes questions for tribal entities to consider in their response to SAMHSA. Written responses are due November 23, 2023.
Source: Federal Register

Last Updated: 11/30/2023