Wisconsin state opioid response 3 - the intersection of the opioid epidemic and the covid-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for individuals, families, and communities

These challenges are compounded for individuals with opioid, stimulant, and/or concurrent substance use disorders, especially for diverse racial/ethnic populations and rural communities that are often underserved. The wisconsin state opioid response (SOR) will focus on expanding access to evidence-based opioid and stimulant use disorder treatment and recovery services, advancing opioid and stimulant use prevention and harm reduction, and reducing opioid and stimulant-related overdose deaths. The SOR-funded initiatives and programs outlined in this application continue to build on the infrastructure and progress made with previous SOR grants and essential to evolve wisconsin's response to the opioid epidemic. The wisconsin department of health services (DHS) completed a needs assessment that identified high-need geographical regions and vulnerable/underserved populations. The assessment was used to prioritize decision making regarding program development and resource allocation to these areas. Due to systemic barriers and social factors, health inequities exist for african american and native american indians in wisconsin, as well other minority populations. African americans are the largest racial minority group in wisconsin, and predominantly live in southern and southeastern wisconsin. Wisconsin also contains 11 federally recognized tribes in addition to other, non-federally recognized tribes, within the state. Tribal lands are located mostly in rural areas of wisconsin. The top ten high-need counties have large populations of either african americans or native american indians. Additionally, half of the identified high-need counties are considered over 60 percent rural. DHS plans to support 2,000 unduplicated individuals with treatment services and 1,000 unduplicated individuals with recovery support services throughout the two year grant cycle through the following programs and initiatives: implementing community prevention strategies, revamping the media prevention campaign to actively target diverse populations such as racial/ethnic minorities, lgbtqi plus, youth, older adults, and rural populations, statewide distribution of naloxone and FTS, increasing access to all as many forms of moud as possible, implementing low threshold moud treatment programs, continuing to support and expand the recovery helpline and website that connects people to addiction recovery resources and services, expanding recovery coaching and peer support initiatives, training medical professionals to develop highly efficient teams of emergency room (ER) clinicians to deliver best-practice treatment to individuals that present with OUD, and providing a robust professional training curriculum on ebps and implementation to wisconsin's SUD workforce that will also address behavioral health equity and improve identification and delivery of culturally appropriate services to individuals in wisconsin.