Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Regional Center (ROTA-RC) for HHS Region 4 - Southeast Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Regional Center (SE ROTA-RC). Florida State University's Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children proposes to continue serving as the SE ROTA-RC for HHS Region 4. The project will expand evidence-based training, technical assistance, and technology transfer to strengthen prevention, treatment, recovery, and integrated care for opioid and stimulant use disorders in the region's rural communities. Leveraging its 26-member Consortium, the project will serve the 647 HRSA-designated rural counties across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, where workforce shortages and geographic barriers limit access to prevention, treatment, and recovery services. In 2024, overdose death rates in Region 4's rural counties exceeded both the regional average and suburban counties, and rural women's overdose rate exceeded that of suburban women, underscoring the epidemic's disproportionate rural impact. The intended audience spans lay volunteers to doctoral-level clinicians, including healthcare professions (physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, behavioral health providers, addiction counselors, social workers, and peer specialists); education and youth-serving professionals (educators, juvenile justice and child welfare professionals, Cooperative Extension and 4-H personnel, librarians, and health-professions students); organizations (healthcare, behavioral health, faith-based, and community); and community members (individuals in recovery, family, caregivers, and community leaders, including elected officials), particularly youth, justice-involved youth, child-welfare-involved families, and rural veterans. Over three years, the Stoops Center will provide training and technical assistance (TTA) to 17,953 unduplicated participants (5,192 in YR 1, 6,229 in YR 2, 6,532 in YR3) through universal, targeted, and intensive TTA. Activities include self-paced online courses, biweekly webinars and virtual technical assistance sessions, Mental Health First Aid, MOUD, SBIRT, integrated care, and overdose prevention training, youth prevention through the Rebound & Recovery: Opioid Prevention and Wellbeing certification, a new disaster response/SUD certification, Certified Behavioral Health Technician (CBHT) training, implementation coaching, readiness assessments, train-the-trainers, learning pathways, toolkits, and a traveling library exhibit. Project goals: (1) expand the Consortium and strengthen regional planning infrastructure; (2) increase workforce and community awareness of evidence-based prevention, treatment, and recovery practices through universal TTA; (3) improve practice skills of provider and community groups through topic-focused TTA; (4) strengthen organizational capacity to adopt evidence-based practices through intensive TTA; and (5) strengthen coordination of prevention, treatment, and recovery resources among regional, state, and national partners. Measurable objectives aligned with SAMHSA's priorities include expanding the Consortium from 23 to 26 academic partners and certifying eight Regional Ambassadors (one per state) by YR 1; conducting an annual needs assessment across at least four counties per state; delivering the Rebound & Recovery program to 250 rural youth in YR 1, increasing to 500 annually beginning in YR 2 to prevent substance misuse; training 200 individuals annually on medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and securing adoption of the Overdose Prevention training as the statewide standard in the remaining seven Region 4 states by YR 3 to improve access to evidence-based treatment; training 100 healthcare professionals annually on SBIRT (300 by YR 3) to strengthen early identification; training 225 providers in integrated healthcare to support long-term recovery; and expanding CBHT training to prepare 300 rural behavioral health workers by YR 3.
