Rural Communities Opioid Response (Planning) - The Get Ahead House, in partnership with Catalyst for Change Training and Development, Inc., Tressa Tucker & Associates, LLC, and regional behavioral health, healthcare, public health, recovery, education, law enforcement, faith-based, and community partners, proposes to establish the Oconee Behavioral Health Network to strengthen behavioral health planning across Baldwin, Jasper, and Putnam Counties in middle Georgia. The proposed rural service area includes three contiguous HRSA-designated rural counties and Health Professional Shortage Areas with a combined 2025 population of 85,383 residents. The region faces persistent socioeconomic disadvantage, limited access to integrated behavioral health services, behavioral health workforce shortages, transportation barriers, elevated mental distress, and fragmented referral and care coordination systems. Data presented in the application demonstrate lower median household incomes, higher poverty and child poverty levels, lower life expectancy, greater reports of fair or poor health, limited primary care and behavioral health provider availability, and ongoing substance use and opioid-related emergency department utilization across the service area. The Oconee Behavioral Health Network will use RCORP-Planning funding to build the partnerships, assessment capacity, governance structure, and organizational readiness needed to develop and sustain a coordinated regional system of substance use disorder, opioid use disorder, co-occurring behavioral health, recovery, and supportive services. The two-year planning project will focus on three core objectives: strengthening a formal regional network; conducting a comprehensive mixed-methods community assessment and gap analysis; and preparing rural providers and community organizations for future implementation of evidence-based behavioral health services. Planning activities will include partner recruitment, memoranda of understanding, shared governance, community engagement, focus groups and listening sessions with individuals with lived experience, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, GIS resource mapping, workforce and organizational readiness assessments, referral workflow development, telehealth readiness review, data-sharing protocols, and sustainability planning. The primary outcome will be a data-driven Regional Behavioral Health Action Plan that establishes measurable priorities, implementation strategies, workforce development recommendations, financing options, performance measures, and a long-term sustainability strategy for expanding prevention, treatment, recovery, and recovery support services throughout Baldwin, Jasper, and Putnam Counties. The Network will use continuous quality improvement, REDCap-supported data collection, dashboards, monthly review meetings, and the Plan-Do Study-Act framework to monitor progress and strengthen the effectiveness of planning. By the end of the project period, the region will have a sustainable coalition, a completed community assessment, strengthened referral and coordination protocols, improved organizational readiness, and a clear roadmap for pursuing future implementation funding and expanding access to coordinated, evidence-based behavioral healthcare in rural middle Georgia.
