Although it still hasn't spent all the money it was allotted almost two years ago, Arkansas has been awarded an additional $2.7 million to curb opioid abuse in the state.
The new award is part of $487 million the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released in supplemental funding to states and territories for the first year of the State Opioid Response grant program.
The additional money brings Arkansas' funding for the program's first year, which started Sept. 30, to about $7.3 million.
Arkansas last year also was awarded $5.1 million for the second year of the program.
State Drug Director Kirk Lane said the money will allow the state to continue to expand initiatives it started under an earlier grant program, known as the State Targeted Response to the Opioid Crisis, as well as new ones that it started under the current grant program.
The initiatives include paying for treatment for uninsured and underinsured Arkansans, providing anti-overdose drugs for emergency response personnel and educating health care providers and others.
The state has distributed about 3,600 kits containing naloxone, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, to agencies across the state, and plans to distribute 4,000 more by the end of the year, Lane said.
In addition to police officers and other emergency response personnel, the kits will go to school nurses, probation and parole officers and even librarians, he said. The kits have been used 219 times so far, he said.
The State Targeted Response program provided Arkansas with $7.8 million over two years and expires in May.
Lane said the state has applied for an extension that would give it another year to spend that money.
"We do have some struggles at times with spending and getting people to come and get services," he said.
He said the state has been trying to spread the word about the assistance that's available and has been seeing results.
It has also been pushing for more doctors to prescribe drugs such as buprenorphine to treat opioid addiction.
The state has 212 physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants authorized to prescribe the drugs, up from 180 several months ago, Lane said. But they are in just 36 of the state's 75 counties, he said.
"We're trying to build capacity," he said.
Carole Baxter, director of Recovery Centers of Arkansas, said the state's efforts have helped bring more patients to her organization, but many of them don't qualify for grant-funded treatment because another source of funding -- such as private insurance coverage or federal substance abuse block grant money -- is available.
The opioid grant money has allowed her organization to hire two former addicts who act as peer recovery support specialists who help mentor and guide patients through treatment.
Several other employees have also completed a grant-supported training program on providing peer recovery support, she said.
Recovery Centers of Arkansas is one of eight organizations that use grant money to provide medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction.
The money also pays for treatment at six methadone clinics in the state, Lane said.
"I think it's been a very successful grant, but if you try to look at the number of people who have been treated out of this particular pot of money, you probably get an inaccurate picture of the impact," Baxter said.
Metro on 03/22/2019