Rural Communities Opioid Response Program - Planning

archived

This notice solicits applications for the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program- Planning (RCORP-Planning).  The purpose of RCORP-Planning is to support treatment for and prevention of substance use disorder, including opioid use disorder (OUD), in rural counties at the highest risk for substance use disorder. The overall goal of RCORP-Planning is to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with opioid overdoses in high-risk rural communities by multi-sector consortiums (as defined in the  “Eligibility Information” section) planning to strengthen their organizational and infrastructural capacity to address one or more of the following focus areas at the community, county, state, and/or regional levels: Prevention:  reducing the occurrence of opioid use disorder among new and at-risk users, as well as fatal opioid-related overdoses, through activities such as community and provider education, and harm reduction measures including the strategic placement and use of overdose reversing devices, such as naloxone, and syringe services programs; (See page 20 for additional information) Treatment:  implementing or expanding access to evidence-based practices for opioid addiction/OUD treatment, such as medication-assisted treatment (MAT) including developing strategies to eliminate or reduce treatment costs to uninsured and underinsured patients; and Recovery:  expanding peer recovery and treatment options that help people start and stay in recovery. RCORP-Planning will support one (1) year of planning funding.  The program is part of a multi-year opioid-focused effort by HRSA that will include: improving access to and recruitment of new substance use disorder providers; building sustainable treatment resources; increasing the use of telehealth; establishing cross-sector community partnerships; implementing new models of care, including integrated behavioral health; and providing technical assistance.  In FY 2019, HRSA will allocate approximately $24 million to fund RCORP-Planning.  In addition, in FY 2019 and beyond, there will be additional funds available to provide continued support for implementation and evaluation activities, including additional awards and National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Program awards. Consequently, RCORP-Planning award recipients are encouraged to cultivate strong county, state, and regional-level partnerships and to incorporate workforce recruitment and retention needs and efforts into planning and capacity building activities throughout the period of performance.  For example, RCORP-Planning award recipients can use funds to ensure that health care organizations obtain eligibility for placement of rural NHSC clinicians in future years.  While this award provides one year of planning funding, HRSA envisions that these consortiums will work towards becoming operational and sustainable beyond the project year, and that they will have achieved levels of efficiency and service integration and coordination to implement multi-county or state OUD prevention, treatment, and recovery initiatives.  It is expected that consortiums will develop plans to ensure that services provided to the target population are affordable and accessible.  Therefore, RCORP-Planning award recipients are also encouraged to leverage and coordinate their OUD activities with other federal, state, and local OUD resources during the period of performance.

High