The Health District has been a recipient of the Human Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) grant since June 2019. This grant is broken into two different phases: Planning and Implementation. The planning phase ran from 2019-2020 and laid the groundwork for the work to be performed. The Health District is now in the second year of the implementation phase. As part of this phase, the project specifically serves the two federally-qualifying rural-census tracts in Snohomish County (Map 2, below).
The District, along with a consortium of community partners, are working towards the implementation of strategies that increase access to prevention, treatment, and recovery services and support for individuals with opioid-use disorder and their families.
HRSA has established core activities for this work. One of the goals under prevention activities identified by the HRSA consortium is to increase and support the use of school- and community-based prevention programs that are evidence-based to prevent misuse of opioids and other substances. Through this grant, we would like to subcontract with Darrington School District to provide the necessary funding to hire a mental health counselor for their middle and high schools. This will meet required grant activities in filling existing community gaps in prevention and treatment for individuals with substance use disorder and in particular, opioid use disorder.
The is a term-limited position through August 23, 2023. It is budgeted at $120,000 and would be fully paid for with HRSA RCORP funds.