Friday, April 4, 2025
4/4/2025
SUD Treatment Expansion in Mississippi (STEM) - This proposal, entitled SUD Treatment Expansion in Mississippi (STEM), seeks to reduce recidivism as well as morbidity and mortality of substance use disorders (SUDs) and co-occurring mental health disorders (with particular emphasis on post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]) in a targeted high-need (i.e., substantial burden of SUDs and mental illness), low-resource (i.e., scarcity of mental health providers) adult felony drug court in Mississippi. The University of Mississippi Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior will partner with the 2nd Circuit Drug Intervention Court of Mississippi whose 133 participants are mostly male (58%) and white (69%), with the average age being 37 years old. The drug court’s catchment area has an average of 17.3% of its citizens living at or below the poverty level and the average ratio of citizens to mental health provider is 1,787:1. Importantly, the drug court’s jurisdiction includes the county ranked highest in the state for number of suspected overdose deaths and number of naloxone administrations performed by emergency medical services. Finally, 54% of the current participants in the 2nd Circuit Drug Court are uninsured. Interventions and strategies to address needs include providing no cost, evidenced-based psychotherapy exclusively via telehealth as well as increasing access to medications for opioid use disorders (MOUD) and screenings for infectious diseases. The specific goals (and objectives) of the STEM Project include the following: (a) increase screening for SUDs and PTSD as well as other comorbid mental health disorders using empirically validated measures (≥75% of newly eligible participants will be screened for enrollment into the STEM Program), (b) provide evidenced-based, no-cost, timely individual SUDs and PTSD treatment via telehealth (≥90% of all first treatment sessions will occur within 2 weeks of the initial screening; ≥80% of enrolled participants will receive an adequate dose of evidenced-based treatment), (c) deliver evidence-based telehealth groups (≥ 1 telehealth group will be conducted per week), (d) track the progress for participants throughout the project period at routine timepoints (≥70% of eligible participants will complete post-treatment follow-up measures every 6 months), (e) increase access to MOUD (the STEM program will fully subsidize the prescription costs for an average of 8 eligible participants per year), and (f) increase access to free and confidential HIV, viral hepatitis, and sexually transmitted infection screenings (≥3 on-site testing events will be offered per year). It is projected that this proposal will serve at least 45 unique drug court participants yearly, totaling at least 225 individuals for the life of the grant.
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).