Once-Resistant Rural Court Officials Begin to Embrace Medications to Treat Addiction

To address overdose deaths, multiple organizations across Athens County and Ohio University have implemented free Narcan distribution and training programs since 2023, including overdose response training sessions and no-barrier access to free Narcan kits through campus cabinets, health departments, and community organizations partnered with Ohio's Project DAWN network. The programs have helped distribute hundreds of Narcan boxes and to normalize overdose response training and reduce stigma around addiction.

Talk Overdose provides peer-delivered education to youth in seventh to twelfth grade about overdose prevention. The group of teens also provides naloxone training, hosts guest speakers and interactive workshops that teach empathetic listening skills. Talk Overdose was formed in 2021 and has since reached over 1,500 youth across the country and has stated to offer Indigenous culture workshops, as a connection to culture has shown to have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing.

Students at Arlington Public Schools are being trained to carry and administer Narcan to help reduce the rising number of opioid overdose deaths, specifically among young people. Programs like this and access to treatment like Suboxone help make it easier for youth to find recovery and prevent drug overdoses.

The Mental Health Rebuilding and Restoring Initiative helps those struggling with drug addiction by showing them documentaries of others who have also struggled with addiction and how they managed to overcome it. The documentaries have since helped 50 people to stop using drugs. The Initiative also follows up with, monitors and encourages participants throughout their recovery journey.

In an effort to build non-arrest pathways to drug treatment and recoveries, like transitional housing and various support services, groups like The Sidewalk Project and Friendly House are emerging. The groups use harm-reduction measures to help women struggling with opioid addiction and lead them toward recovery when they’re ready.

Chesterfield County, Virginia implemented a multi-faceted response to the opioid crisis, including a jail-based recovery program, Helping Addicts Recover Progressively (HARP), that brings people in recovery to the local jail to talk about addiction and treatment resources. Combined with other efforts, overdose deaths have dropped by half in a single year, and around 4,000 people have participated in HARP.

CalAIM’s contingency management program gives people gift cards for not using drugs. For every negative drug test, patients receive gift cards, and the payouts increase after each test. Patients who test negative every time over six months can earn up to $599. The treatment style is based on the concept of reinforcement as an effective motivator. Studies suggest the excitement of getting a gift card mimics the dopamine rush from using drugs.

While the decriminalization effort Measure 110 failed to fully meet the mark, the Health Justice Recovery Alliance joined forces with local law enforcement to create a pilot program that helped locals struggling with addiction. Through the program, police can contact an outreach worker who will come to the scene and connect the person struggling with addiction to support services such as detox care and housing, helping lead them toward long-term recovery. So far, the pilot program has helped over 200 people.

The Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition (VHRC) uses harm reduction strategies to help those suffering from addiction by providing free supplies like overdose reversal spray, safe smoking kits and clean syringes, as well as connection to education and treatment options when people are ready. Those who access services through a harm reduction program are five times more likely to enter treatment programs. Last year alone, the VHRC distributed more than 20,000 doses of Narcan which they know reversed at least 2,000 overdoses.

Casa Mía provides housing and support services for pregnant women and new mothers struggling with addiction. The program is run out of an old house and is currently home to nine women. Staff at Casa Mía provide mental health care, recovery resources and work to destigmatize substance abuse to prevent mothers from losing their children to the foster care system.