The Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) is a multi-year initiative by Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy aimed at supporting treatment for and prevention of Substance Use Disorder/Opioid Use Disorder (SUD/OUD). In FY18, HRSA awarded 95 grants to rural communities under the RCORP-Planning initiative and funded a technical assistance center to support RCORP award recipients.
Two of the 95 awardees where from South Dakota: Avera Health and Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board (GPTCHB). Avera Health included three areas of focus, seeking to understand gaps in and develop solutions as it relates to opioid use for: workforce development, Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program expansion and sustainability, including telemedicine; and care coordination/navigation services. The GPTCHB focused on opioid abuse prevention for the nine SD tribes and is conducting a needs assessment.
HRSA’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy will be releasing a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a new RCORP initiative called RCORP-Implementation (HRSA-19-082). HRSA plans to award approximately 75 grants to rural communities as part of this funding opportunity. Successful RCORP-Implementation award recipients will receive up to $1 million for a three-year period of performance to enhance and expand substance use disorder (SUD), including opioid use disorder (OUD), service delivery in high-risk rural communities. Awardees will implement a set of core SUD/OUD prevention, treatment, and recovery activities aligned with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Five-Point Strategy to Combat the Opioid Crisis. In addition to the RCORP-Implementation awards, HRSA anticipates awarding later this year a new round of RCORP-Planning grants, in which the the application date has closed.
The funding opportunity will be posted at the following link in the next few weeks: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html?keywords=hrsa-19-082.
