University Of Nevada-Reno receives $650K Opioid Str grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Rural opioid technical assistance (rota) regional center for HHS region 9 (R9) - the university of Nevada, reno's center for the application of substance abuse technologies (casat) proposes to serve as the region 9 rural opioid technical assistance regional center (rota-R9). Rota-R9 will expand access to evidence-based prevention, including overdose prevention, treatment, and recovery support services, and address opioid, stimulant, and poly-substance use disorders through training and technical assistance (tta) for rural communities. Collaborating with state, regional and national partners, rota-R9 will deliver accessible, regionally specific tta that improves workforce knowledge, organizational capacity, and service delivery across rural communities in HHS region 9 (R9). Rota-R9 will serve 42 rural counties across Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada, and the united states affiliated pacific islands, including american samoa, the commonwealth of the northern mariana islands, the federated states of micronesia, guam, the republic of the marshall islands, and the republic of palau. R9 rural communities continue to experience behavioral health workforce shortages, limited access to prevention, including overdose prevention, treatment and recovery support services, geographic isolation, transportation barriers, and increasing opioid, stimulant, and polysubstance use, highlighting the need for coordinated, tailored tta. The intended audiences are rural behavioral health providers, general healthcare providers, public health professionals, cooperative extension personnel, recovery organizations, community- and faith-based organizations, healthcare administrators, state opioid response/tribal opioid response recipients, and other rural organizations addressing substance use disorders. The populations benefiting from the project are individuals/families living in rural communities who have, or are at risk for, opioid use disorder, stimulant use disorder, polysubstance use, and co-occurring behavioral health conditions. Rota-R9 will provide a continuum of universal, topic-focused, and intensive tta informed by annual regional needs assessment surveys (nas) and input from a partner advisory council and advisory board. Project activities include webinars, online learning series, individualized implementation support, in-person events, consultations, guides, toolkits, fact sheets, videos, and other web-based resources focused on prevention, including overdose prevention, treatment, recovery support services, stigma reduction, drug trends, trauma, resilience, nutrition, and workforce development. Resources/event opportunities will be disseminated through the rota network website, partners, social media, and regional stakeholder networks to maximize reach and impact. Over the three-year project period, rota-R9 will provide tta to at least 1,585 unduplicated individuals: 385 (year 1), 600 (year 2), and 600 (year 3). Project goals are to strengthen regional collaboration, increase workforce knowledge/skills, expand access to high-quality rural tta, promote adoption of evidence-based/evidence-informed practices, support SAMHSA strategic priorities, and continuously improve performance through evaluation and quality improvement. Measurable objectives include establishing regional advisory partnerships; conducting annual nas; delivering universal, topic-focused, and intensive tta; developing/ disseminating evidence-based resources; increasing stakeholder engagement and resource utilization; and using gpra performance measures/continuous quality improvement processes to evaluate outcomes and enhance project effectiveness throughout the grant period.