Rural Communities Opioid Response (Planning) - Adams County Health Department (ACHD), the local public health authority for Adams County, Colorado, requests two years of RCORP-Planning funding to build the East Adams Rural Behavioral Health and SUD Planning Network. ACHD will serve as lead convener and backbone organization; it will not deliver direct clinical services. The target rural service area is Strasburg, an unincorporated community of about 3,455 residents in eastern Adams County (Census Tract 08001008402, a HRSA-designated rural area). Strasburg has no coordinated, area-specific behavioral health and substance use disorder (SUD) planning infrastructure. The nearest community mental health centers are 33 to 40 miles away with no public transit option, and reliable local substance use data is largely unavailable, so residents' needs are masked by county-level numbers. County-level data point to the likely community focus areas: opioid- and fentanyl-involved overdose, alongside methamphetamine, alcohol, and nicotine use. Adams County's fentanyl-involved overdose death rate rose from 14 to 24 per 100,000 residents between 2020 and 2022. Over the two-year project, ACHD will: (1) build and lead a multi-sector network of partner organizations, with at least half physically located in the target rural area, and seat people with lived experience of SUD and OUD in standing, compensated roles; (2) conduct a comprehensive community needs and asset assessment covering SUD prevalence, service availability, workforce capacity, and the local funding landscape, and translate findings into a strategic action plan; and (3) prepare rural providers, including the region's community mental health centers, to establish or expand services, with attention to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) capacity. Four network partners are confirmed: Saving Grace Therapy Services and Peak Vista Community Health Centers' Strasburg site, both located in the target tract, and Community Reach Center and Aurora Mental Health and Recovery, the two regional community mental health centers serving Adams County. The network will expand to include law enforcement, schools, faith-based and community organizations, and local government. This work builds on ACHD's experience convening the Adams County Thriving Communities Collective and leading the county's Community Health Improvement Plan, applying a proven collective-action model to a rural area where behavioral health infrastructure has not kept pace with need. By the end of the award, the community will have a formalized, sustainable network, an area-specific needs and asset assessment, and a community-driven action plan that positions rural providers to expand SUD and OUD services.
