Grant Aims To Help Fight Opioid Epidemic In Appalachia

The University of Rochester Medical Center has been awarded a multi-million-dollar federal grant that will help fight the worst effects of the opioid in Appalachia.

The three-year, 6.7-million-dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will connect substance use disorder experts from the University of Rochester Recovery Center with local health care providers in 23 Appalachian counties. The counties span New York, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.

The goal is to identify what is working in rural communities and what challenges still exist and then to reach out to community leaders to hold webinars based on the findings.

The investigators will also look for best practices that can combat future substance use epidemics, according to a press release from the university. Researchers plan to look at how to better prevent and respond to factors like pain management, economic despair, education and opportunity, all of which, they say, may affect how epidemics like this take hold.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from Marshall Health and Charleston Area Medical Center.