Intercommunity health care hartford mat expansion project - intercommunity health care (IC) will expand, enhance, and strengthen our medication-assisted treatment (mat) service delivery model at our…

Intercommunity health care hartford mat expansion project - intercommunity health care (IC) will expand, enhance, and strengthen our medication-assisted treatment (mat) service delivery model at our hartford north end campus in hartford, CT. This expanded program will increase access to mat services in hartford's north end neighborhood, while also addressing mat retention and engagement barriers. Our population of focus consists of hartford's north end residents with an opioid use disorder (OUD) and CO-occurring mental health and opioid use disorders (cods). The city of hartford has seen among the highest rates of opioid abuse than the rest of the state. Rates of opioid abuse are even higher in hartford with a drug-induced death rate of 39.9 deaths per 100,000, compared to the state rate of 35. IC's north end campus is located within one of the top 25 ZIP codes in the state with the largest number of reported suspected overdoses. Residents experience high rates of crime, food insecurity, unemployment, and a 30% poverty rate, in addition to multiple chronic diseases and cods. Through this enhanced program, IC will leverage new peer support specialists and enhanced care coordination and case management to improve mat adherence and our continuum of recovery care between our detox center and our outpatient mat program in the north end. IC will also expand mat hours into the evening and weekends to increase availability of mat services in the area. The expansion of a mat provider and mat team will increase the mat caseload capacity at our hartford site and support additional mat services in tandem with behavioral health therapy during the expanded hours. IC's expanded mat program will serve 825 adults over the 5 year grant period. In addition to mat as an EBP, IC will utilize the following ebps in conjunction with mat: cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, stages of change, peer support, voucher-based reinforcement, and gender-responsive group therapy through the helping men recover and helping women recover trauma-informed programs. Our goals comprise: increase the number of individuals with OUD receiving mat and decreasing illicit opioid drug use and prescription opioid misuse; strengthen organizational capacity to provide mat in combination with comprehensive OUD psychosocial services comprising behavioral therapies, counseling, and recovery support services; and increase the number of clients with an OUD diagnosis who are outreached, engaged, and retained in OUD treatment.