Thursday, November 21, 2024
11/21/2024
The proposed project titled the "Northeast and Caribbean Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Center (NeC-ROTAC) will be led by the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene (RFMH) in collaboration with the Rutgers School of Social Work and the Institute of Research Education and Services in Addiction (IRESA) at the Universidad del Central Caribe (UCC), School of Medicine. The NeC-ROTAC will serve as a regional center of excellence for HHS Region 2 (New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) to develop and disseminate training and technical assistance (TTA) related to the prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery activities for opioid use disorder (OUD), stimulant use disorder (StUD), and substance use disorders (SUD) more broadly. NeC-ROTAC services provided within HHS Region 2 will be targeted in geographically defined catchment areas defined as rural in accordance with federal definitions used by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Rural populations in HHS Region 2 are uniquely diverse with 99% of rural residents in PR being Hispanic, 76% of rural residents in the USVI being African American, and 23% and 20% of rural residents in NJ being Hispanic and African American, respectively. TTA efforts for the proposed NeC-ROTAC will be organized into three distinct tiers, each targeting unique collaborators for the dissemination of best practices related to prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery for OUD, StUD, and SUD. Tier 1 recipients would be cooperative extension staff (e.g., faculty, health educators, and technicians). Strategies employed here would leverage the train-the-trainer (TTT) model, a framework that is designed to groom cooperative extension staff as subject matter experts who can then disseminate information as part of their routine interactions with individuals in rural communities. Tier 2 recipients would be community partners such as farm bureaus and associations, faith-based organizations, public schools, first responders, public libraries, non-profit wellness organizations, and others who also routinely interact with residents in rural communities. Strategies employed here would focus on the provision of education and resources to help raise awareness, reduce stigma, and improve knowledge, in an effort to equip these entities to effectively intervene with individuals at risk of OUD/StUD/SUD. Tier 3 recipients would be providers (e.g., specialty care substance use and mental health providers, primary care providers, and criminal justice practitioners) who will encounter individuals with behavioral health disorders in their service settings. Strategies employed here will focus on best practices for: triage to improve identification of individuals at risk and linkage to services (i.e Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment [SBIRT]); increasing access to specialty care emphasizing models most effective in rural areas (e.g., hub and spoke models and teleservices); and the treatment of OUD, StUD, and SUD (e.g., medications for opioid use disorders [MOUD] and behavioral interventions such as motivational interviewing, contingency management, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoeducation, etc.). During this two-year project, the NeC-ROTAC will serve a total of 2,200 individuals. During the first year of the proposed project, the estimate of individuals served (n=800) is lower to allow for the time necessary to identify rural communities eligible for and most in need of NeC-ROTAC services, engage community partners in a comprehensive needs assessment that will help to establish the TTA agenda for the NeC-ROTAC and to expand collaborative relationships in the region with the target population for TTA. Estimates provided for the second year of the proposed project (n=1,400) reflect the anticipated capacity of a fully operational NeC-ROTAC.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
