Arkansas Rural Health Partnership is one of 21 sites selected to receive the Rural Responses to the Opioid Epidemic grant. ARHP will receive $750,000 over the next two years to design and implement an intervention to bridge the gap between healthcare providers and the judicial system, seeking to expand access to therapeutic services for individuals with opioid use disorder.
Enhancing collaboration between local law enforcement and healthcare services is key to meeting the initiative’s stated goals of preventing and reducing overdose deaths associated with opioids and advancing a shared understanding of the patterns and characteristics of problem drug use in a local community.
This initiative will integrate public safety and public health approaches and blend interagency expertise and funding to address the epidemic. It will enable rural areas to implement evidence-based solutions and promising practices in a way that utilizes the unique assets of their communities. Its goal is to reduce opioid overdose deaths in high-risk rural communities, and to support and promote a shared understanding of the patterns and characteristics of local opioid use.