$40-million in Additional Funding for MD’s Heroin & Opioid Crisis
Governor Larry Hogan has announced $40-million in new funding to fight the heroin and opioid epidemic in Maryland. Efforts to combat the heroin and opioid crisis have escalated over the past year – and the Governor says it’s critical to continue the fight. It’s about saving lives. This funding includes $29.4-million from the Hogan-Rutherford administration, $10-million from the federal 21st Century Cures Act and $1.2-million from the Governor’s Office of Crime Control & Prevention.
Efforts that will receive enhanced funding in FY 2019 include:
$4 million total distributed to local Opioid Intervention Teams (as noted in table below) for each jurisdiction to determine how best to fight the opioid epidemic, which may expand on current prevention, enforcement, and treatment efforts
$2.5 million to fight the opioid crisis through prevention and education, and treatment and recovery efforts
Prevention and Education
$1 million for a public awareness campaign to reduce stigma and increase patient-physician communication
$700,000 to establish harm reduction outreach teams
$200,000 to continue program that creates school-based teams for early identification of the problems related to substance use disorders
Enforcement
$850,000 to continue heroin coordinator program, which helps to make the link between law enforcement and treatment
$380,000 to expand law enforcement assisted diversion (LEAD) to treatment programs
$370,000 to increase monitoring and regulatory oversight of controlled substances prescribers and dispensers
Treatment and Recovery
$18.5 million to increase reimbursement rates for behavioral health providers as outlined in the Heroin and Opioid Prevention Effort (HOPE) and Treatment Act of 2017
$2.8 million to expand access to crisis beds and residential treatment services statewide
$2.2 million to improve access to naloxone statewide
$2 million to support implementation of 24-hour crisis stabilization center in Baltimore City
$1.7 million to support peer support specialist and SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) services, with a focus on hospitals, correctional facilities, and other high-risk populations
$1.5 million to increase access to medications that support recovery from substance use disorders
$350,000 to expand and improve the statewide crisis hotline
$200,000 to support Montgomery County School System recovery and academic program
