1. Project Title: Rural Communities Opioid Response Program–Behavioral Health Care Support 2. Requested Award Amount: $500,000 for each of 4 project period years 3. Applicant Organization Name: Georgia Association for Primary Health Care, Inc. 4. Applicant Organization Address: 315 West Ponce de Leon Ave. Suite 1000, Decatur, GA 30030-2433 5. Applicant Organization Facility Type: Primary Care Association 6. Project Director Name and Title: Lakisha Samuels 7. Project Director Contact Information: (912) 438-9748, lsamuels@gaphc.org 8. Data Coordinator Name and Title: TBH, Data Coordinator 9. Data Coordinator Contact Information: TBH 10. EIN/DUNS Number Exception Request in Attachment 8? (Y/N): N 11. How the Applicant First Learned About the Funding Opportunity: HRSA News Release 12. Number of Consortium Members & List of Consortium Members: 4 Consortium members: Georgia Association for Primary Health Care, Inc.; Council of Accountability Court Judges of Georgia; East Georgia Healthcare Center, Inc.; South Central Primary Care Center, Inc. 13. Is the Applicant Organization a previous or current RCORP Award Recipient or Consortium Member? No. 14. Indicate if Applicant Organization intends to apply for FY22 RCORP- Implementation? (Y/N): N 15. Does the target service area overlap with the service areas of the Northern Border Regional Commission, the Delta Regional Authority, or the Appalachian Regional Commission? (Y/N): N 16. RCORP-BHS target service area: - Fully Rural Counties: Appling, Atkinson, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bulloch, Candler, Coffee, Cook, Emanuel, Evans, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Jenkins, Montgomery, Screven, Tattnall, Toombs, Treutlen, and Wayne. All in the State of Georgia. - Partially-Rural Counties: none. 17. Brief Description of the Target Population: All 19 target service area counties are eligible for rural health grants according to the HRSA Rural Health Grant Eligibility Analyzer (HRSA, 2022). Like many rural regio
ns, the GAPHC service area has been severely impacted by the opioid epidemic. Between 2016 and 2020, 237 service area residents died from drug-induced causes, a 26% increase since the previous five-year period (OASIS, GA Department of Public Health). The project service area has higher rates of mortality due to opioid-induced overdoses than the state average. All drug-induced mortality in the service area continues to rise, from 10.4 per 100,000 in 2015 to 12.7 per 100,000 (age-adjusted; OASIS, GA Dept of Public Health, 2011-2015; 2016-2020). An estimated 18,830 individuals aged 12 and older in the service area have a substance use disorder, including 2,170 youth. Of these, an estimated 1,620 specifically have an opioid-use related disorder. Georgia increased a 36% increase in opioid-related overdose deaths between 2019 and 2020, fuel by the increased availability of fentanyl (fentanyl-related deaths doubled) and despair related to the COVID-19 pandemic (“Perfect storm: In Georgia, rising opioid overdoses don’t discriminate,” The Current, 7/14/2021). Service area residents primarily identify as white (67.1%), while more than a quarter (26.8%) identify as Black or African American, more than twice the national average (12.7%). Two percent or less of residents identify as Asian, American Indian/Alaska Native, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, or multiracial (American Community Survey: 2016-2020, Census Bureau, 2021). The Native American Indian population is not a target population for this project.