Oklahoma will receive an additional $11.8
million in federal funds to help battle the opioid crisis, the Trump
administration announced Wednesday.
The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and
Substance Abuse Services will be given $7,650,315 in new federal funds, while
the Oklahoma State Department of Health will receive $4,191,979, the
administration announced.
The funds are part of $1.8 billion that will be
distributed nationally to help states combat the opioid epidemic, federal
officials said.
The Oklahoma Health Department will use a
portion of the nearly $4.2 million that it will receive to improve its ability
to quickly and accurately collect data on drug overdoses, said Tony Sellars,
spokesman for the Health Department.
The money will be used for many other programs
as well, including educating the public to reduce the stigma associated with substance
use disorders and training and educating clinicians about substance use
disorders, opioid prescribing guidelines and pain management best practices,
Sellars said.
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Department of Mental
Health and Substance Abuse Services plans to use the $7.6 million in new money
that it will receive to continue funding a variety of programs to prevent,
treat and provide recovery services related to opioid abuse disorder, said
agency spokesman Jeffrey Dismukes.
The state mental health department will receive its funding
through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The
grant is part of the State Opioid Response grant program through which the
state has previously received more than $11.6 million, Dismukes said.
Opioid abuse continues to be a huge problem in Oklahoma, health
officials said.
About OrionNet Systems
OrionNet is an Oklahoma small
business founded in 2001. OrionNet has designed, developed and supported
applications created both for the client-server and web environments, as well
as developing, marketing and supporting a commercial application for the
counseling centers industry.
Visit the OrionNet Systems’
website, www.iorion.com, or
their social media pages, https://twitter.com/ThinkHealth & https://www.facebook.com/pages/OrionNet-Systems/139352156150090 for more information.
###