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Approved Uses: Other Strategies

The South Carolina Opioid Recovery Fund must be used for Support treatment of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and any co-occurring Substance Use Disorder (SUD) or Mental Health (MH) conditions through evidence-based or evidence-informed programs or strategies that may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • First Responders;
  • Leadership, Planning, and Coordination;
  • Training; and
  • Research.

Learn more about each Other Strategies program or strategy by expanding the following accordions.

I. First Responders

In addition to the items described on the Treatment and Prevention pages relating to first responders, support the following:

  1. Education of law enforcement or other first responders regarding appropriate practices and precautions when dealing with fentanyl or other drugs.
  2. Provision of wellness and support services for first responders and others who experience secondary trauma associated with opioid-related emergency events.
J. Leadership, Planning, and Coordination

Support efforts to provide leadership, planning, coordination, facilitation, training, and technical assistance to abate the opioid epidemic through activities, programs, or strategies that may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Statewide, regional, local, or community regional planning to identify root causes of addiction and overdose, goals for reducing harms related to the opioid epidemic, and areas and populations with the greatest needs for treatment intervention services, and to support training and technical assistance and other strategies to abate the opioid epidemic described in this opioid abatement strategy list.
  2. A dashboard to:
    1. Share reports, recommendations, or plans to spend opioid settlement funds,
    2. Show how opioid settlement funds have been spent,
    3. Report program or strategy outcomes, or
    4. Track, share, or visualize key opioid or health-related indicators and supports as identified through collaborative statewide, regional, local, or community processes.
  3. Invest in infrastructure or staffing at government or not-for-profit agencies to support collaborative, cross-system coordination with the purpose of preventing overprescribing, opioid misuse, or opioid overdoses, treating those with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, supporting them in treatment or recovery, connecting them to care, or implementing other strategies to abate the opioid epidemic described in this opioid abatement strategy list.
  4. Provide resources to staff government oversight and management of opioid abatement programs.

 

K. Training

In addition to the training referred to throughout the Opioid Recovery Fund Uses, support training to abate the opioid epidemic through activities, programs, or strategies that may include, but are not limited to, those that:

  1. Provide funding for staff training or networking programs and services to improve the capability of government, community, and not-for-profit entities to abate the opioid crisis.
  2. Support infrastructure and staffing for collaborative cross-system coordination to prevent opioid misuse, prevent overdoses, and treat those with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, or implement other strategies to abate the opioid epidemic described in this opioid abatement strategy list (e.g., health care, primary care, pharmacies, PDMPs, etc.).
L. Research

Support opioid abatement research that may include, but is not limited to, the following:

  1. Monitoring, surveillance, data collection, and evaluation of programs and strategies described in this opioid abatement strategy list.
  2. Research non-opioid treatment of chronic pain.
  3. Research on improved service delivery for modalities, such as SBIRT that demonstrate promising but mixed results in populations vulnerable to opioid use disorders.
  4. Research on novel harm reduction and prevention efforts, such as the provision of fentanyl test strips.
  5. Research on innovative supply-side enforcement efforts such as improved detection of mail-based delivery of synthetic opioids.
  6. Expanded research on swift/certain/fair models to reduce and deter opioid misuse within criminal justice populations that build upon promising approaches used to address other substances (e.g., Hawaii HOPE and Dakota 24/7).
  7. Epidemiological surveillance of OUD-related behaviors in critical populations, including individuals entering the criminal justice system, including, but not limited to approaches modeled on the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) system.
  8. Qualitative and quantitative research regarding public health risks and harm reduction opportunities within illicit drug markets, including surveys of market participants who sell or distribute illicit opioids.
  9. Geospatial analysis of access barriers to MAT and their association with treatment engagement and treatment outcomes.