HHS announces $10 million grant for rural areas to combat opioid crisis

HHS has announced the availability of $10 million in substance misuse grant funding through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Rural Communities Opioid Response Program.

The disclosure of additional funding, announced in an HHS press release, builds on the $15 million announced last week for rural communities to address psychostimulant misuse and related overdose deaths.

According to the release, drug overdose deaths involving prescription opioids rose 376% from 3,442 in 1999 to 16,416 in 2020. While overall drug overdose deaths are currently higher in urban than rural communities (22 deaths per 100,000 individuals vs. 19.6 per 100,000), nationally the increase in both rural and urban communities has been significant.

“With today’s announcement, we are taking action to support individuals and families in rural communities hit hard by overdoses,” HRSA administrator Carole Johnson said in the release. “Our priority with this funding is to increase access to lifesaving treatment and help individuals build a path to recovery.”

Most recently, provisional data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics indicate there were an estimated 107,622 drug overdose deaths in the United States last year, an average of nearly 300 lives lost per day.