Rural Communities Opioid Response Program-Impact - Turnagain Community Health (TCH), a Federally Qualified Health Center located in Girdwood, Alaska, proposes to strengthen and expand a locally accessible continuum of substance use disorder (SUD) prevention, treatment, recovery, and supportive services for the rural Turnagain Arm communities of Girdwood, Bird Creek, Indian, Portage, Hope, and Whittier. These geographically dispersed communities face substantial barriers to care, including long travel distances, limited transportation, workforce shortages, stigma, concerns about confidentiality in small communities, and limited access to local recovery supports. TCH has established an integrated primary care, behavioral health, and SUD treatment framework that includes treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD), medications for OUD and AUD, SUD counseling, behavioral health therapy, psychiatric medication management for co-occurring conditions, naloxone distribution, overdose prevention and harm reduction education, referral coordination, and Community Health Worker (CHW) support. The proposed project will build upon this existing infrastructure to improve awareness of available services, strengthen timely entry into and retention in treatment, expand behavioral health access, and create stronger recovery and supportive service capacity within the region. Direct services will include expanded integrated treatment for OUD and AUD; behavioral health and SUD counseling; treatment of co-occurring mental health conditions; overdose prevention and naloxone distribution; peer recovery support; and development of locally accessible recovery activities. Supportive services will include behavioral health case management, referral and transition coordination, assistance navigating treatment and community resources, CHW-supported outreach and navigation, transportation assistance, community education, stigma-reduction activities, and sustained awareness campaigns designed to increase knowledge of confidential local treatment options. Workforce development activities will strengthen TCH’s interdisciplinary rural SUD workforce through recruitment and development of behavioral health, case management, and peer recovery personnel; increased behavioral health availability; development of adolescent-focused behavioral health and SUD expertise; interdisciplinary training; and continued technical assistance related to evidence-based SUD treatment, motivational interviewing, stigma reduction, trauma-informed care, harm reduction, co-occurring conditions, and recovery-oriented care. TCH will lead a coordinated rural network with Hope EMS, the Alaska Society of Addiction Medicine, and Turnagain Community Services. Together, the network will bring complementary expertise in integrated clinical treatment, rural emergency response, addiction medicine, community-based social support, outreach, and recovery engagement. Network partners will strengthen communication, referral and transition pathways, community education, workforce development, and coordinated planning across the rural service area. The desired outcome of the RCORP-Impact project is a stronger and more sustainable rural SUD continuum in which residents have clearer and more trusted pathways into care, increased access to evidence-based treatment and behavioral health services, structured case management, peer recovery support, locally accessible recovery activities, expanded overdose prevention resources, and stronger coordination among the organizations serving the Turnagain Arm communities.
