The Official Web Site of the State of South Carolina

Approved Uses: Treatment

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:

  • Treat Opioid Use Disorder (OUD);
  • Support People in Treatment and Recovery;
  • Connect People Who Need Help to the Help They Need (Connections to Care);
  • Address the Needs of Criminal Justice-Involved Persons; and
  • Address the Needs of Pregnant or Parenting Women and Their Families, including Babies with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS).

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

A. Treat Opioid Use Disorder (OUD)

Support treatment of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and any co-occurring Substance Use Disorder or Mental Health (SUD/MH) conditions through evidence-based or evidence-informed programs or strategies that may include, but are not limited to, those that:

  1. Expand availability of treatment for OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, including all forms of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
  2. Support and reimburse evidence-based services that adhere to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) continuum of care for OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
  3. Expand telehealth to increase access to treatment for OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, including MAT, as well as counseling, psychiatric support, and other treatment and recovery support services.
  4. Improve oversight of Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) to assure evidence-based or evidence-informed practices, such as adequate methadone dosing and low threshold approaches to treatment.
  5. Support mobile intervention, treatment, and recovery services offered by qualified professionals and service providers, such as peer recovery coaches, for persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions and for persons who have experienced an opioid overdose.
  6. Provide treatment of trauma for individuals with OUD (e.g., violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, or adverse childhood experiences) and family members (e.g., surviving family members after an overdose or overdose fatality), and training of health care personnel to identify and address such trauma.
  7. Support evidence-based withdrawal management services for people with OUD and any co-occurring mental health conditions.
  8. Provide training on MAT for health care providers, first responders, students, or other supporting professionals, such as peer recovery coaches or recovery outreach specialists, including tele-mentoring to assist community-based providers in rural or underserved areas.
  9. Support workforce development for addiction professionals who work with persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
  10. Offer fellowships for addiction medicine specialists for direct patient care, instructors, and clinical research for treatments.
  11. Offer scholarships and support for behavioral health practitioners or workers involved in addressing OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH or mental health conditions, including, but not limited to, training, scholarships, fellowships, loan repayment programs, or other incentives for providers to work in rural or underserved areas.
  12. Provide funding and training for clinicians to obtain a waiver under the federal Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 (DATA 2000) to prescribe MAT for OUD, and provide technical assistance and professional support to clinicians who have obtained a DATA 2000 waiver.
  13. Disseminate web-based training curricula, such as the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry’s Provider Clinical Support Service–Opioids web-based training curriculum and motivational interviewing.
  14. Develop and disseminate new curricula, such as the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry’s Provider Clinical Support Service for Medication–Assisted Treatment.
B. Support People in Treatment and Recovery

Support people in recovery from OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions through evidence-based or evidence-informed programs or strategies that may include, but are not limited to, the programs or strategies that:

  1. Provide comprehensive wrap-around services to individuals with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, including housing, transportation, education, job placement, job training, or childcare.
  2. Provide the full continuum of care of treatment and recovery services for OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, including supportive housing, peer support services and counseling, community navigators, case management, and connections to community-based services.
  3. Provide counseling, peer support, recovery case management, and residential treatment with access to medications for those who need it to persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
  4. Provide access to housing for people with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, including supportive housing, recovery housing, housing assistance programs, training for housing providers, or recovery housing programs that allow or integrate FDA-approved mediation with other support services.
  5. Provide community support services, including social and legal services, to assist in deinstitutionalizing persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
  6. Support or expand peer-recovery centers, which may include support groups, social events, computer access, or other services for persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
  7. Provide or support transportation to treatment or recovery programs or services for persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
  8. Provide employment training or educational services for persons in treatment for or recovery from OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
  9. Identify successful recovery programs, such as physician, pilot, and college recovery programs, and provide support and technical assistance to increase the number and capacity of high-quality programs to help those in recovery.
  10. Engage nonprofits, faith-based communities, and community coalitions to support people in treatment and recovery and to support family members in their efforts to support the person with OUD in the family.
  11. Provide training and development of procedures for government staff to appropriately interact and provide social and other services to individuals with or in recovery from OUD, including reducing stigma.
  12. Support stigma reduction efforts regarding treatment and support for persons with OUD, including reducing the stigma on effective treatment.
  13. Create or support culturally appropriate services and programs for persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, including new Americans.
  14. Create and/or support recovery high schools.
  15. Hire or train behavioral health workers to provide or expand any of the services or supports for people in treatment and recovery.
C. Connect People Who Need Help to the Help They Need (Connections to Care)

Provide connections to care for people who have – or are at risk of developing – OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions through evidence-based or evidence-informed programs or strategies that may include, but are not limited to, those that:

  1. Ensure that health care providers are screening for OUD and other risk factors and know how to appropriately counsel and treat (or refer if necessary) a patient for OUD treatment.
  2. Fund SBIRT programs to reduce the transition from use to disorders, including SBIRT services to pregnant women who are uninsured or not eligible for Medicaid.
  3. Provide training and long-term implementation of SBIRT in key systems (health, schools, colleges, criminal justice, and probation), with a focus on youth and young adults when transition from misuse to opioid disorder is common.
  4. Purchase automated versions of SBIRT and support ongoing costs of the technology.
  5. Expand services, such as navigators and on-call teams to begin MAT in hospital emergency departments.
  6. Provide training for emergency room personnel treating opioid overdose patients on post-discharge planning, including community referrals for MAT, recovery case management, or support services.
  7. Support hospital programs that transition persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, or persons who have experienced an opioid overdose, into clinically appropriate follow-up care through a bridge clinic or similar approach.
  8. Support crisis stabilization centers that serve as an alternative to hospital emergency departments for persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions or persons that have experienced an opioid overdose.
  9. Support the work of Emergency Medical Systems, including peer support specialists, to connect individuals to treatment or other appropriate services following an opioid overdose or other opioid-related adverse event.
  10. Provide funding for peer support specialists or recovery coaches in emergency departments, detox facilities, recovery centers, recovery housing, or similar settings; offer services, supports, or connections to care to persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions or to persons who have experienced an opioid overdose.
  11. Expand warm hand-off services to transition to recovery services.
  12. Create or support school-based contacts that parents can engage with to seek immediate treatment services for their child; and support prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery programs focused on young people.
  13. Develop and support best practices on addressing OUD in the workplace.
  14. Support assistance programs for health care providers with OUD.
  15. Engage nonprofits and the faith community as a system to support outreach for treatment.
  16. Support centralized call centers that provide information and connections to appropriate services and supports for persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
D. Address the Needs of Criminal Justice-Involved Persons

Address the needs of persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions who are involved in, are at risk of becoming involved in, or are transitioning out of the criminal justice system through evidence-based or evidence-informed programs or strategies that may include, but are not limited to, those that:

  1. Support pre-arrest or pre-arraignment diversion and deflection strategies for persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, including established strategies, such as:
    1. Self-referral strategies, such as the Angel Programs or the Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative (PAARI),
    2. Active outreach strategies, such as the Drug Abuse Response Team (DART) model,
    3. “Naloxone Plus” strategies, which work to ensure that individuals who have received naloxone to reverse the effects of an overdose are then linked to treatment programs or other appropriate services,
    4. Officer prevention strategies, such as the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) model,
    5. Officer intervention strategies, such as the Leon County, Florida Adult Civil Citation Network or the Chicago Westside Narcotics Diversion to Treatment Initiative, or
    6. Co-responder and/or alternative responder models to address OUD-related 911 calls with greater SUD expertise.
  2. Support pre-trial services that connect individuals with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions to evidence-informed treatment, including MAT and related services.
  3. Support treatment and recovery courts that provide evidence-based options for persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
  4. Provide evidence-informed treatment, including MAT, recovery support, harm reduction, or other appropriate services to individuals with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions who are incarcerated in jail or prison.
  5. Provide evidence-informed treatment, including MAT, recovery support, harm reduction, or other appropriate services to individuals with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions who are leaving jail or prison or have recently left jail or prison, are on probation or parole, are under community corrections supervision, or are in re-entry programs or facilities.
  6. Support Critical Time Interventions (CTI), particularly for individuals living with dual-diagnosis OUD/serious mental illness, and services for individuals who face immediate risks and service needs and risks upon release from correctional settings.
  7. Provide training on best practices for addressing the needs of criminal justice-involved persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions to law enforcement, correctional, or judicial personnel or to providers of treatment, recovery, harm reduction, case management, or other services offered in connection with any of the strategies described in this section.
E. Address the Needs of Pregnant or Parenting Women and Their Families, including Babies with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)

Address the needs of pregnant or parenting women with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, and the needs of their families, including babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), through evidence-based or evidence-informed programs or strategies that may include, but are not limited to, those that:

  1. Support evidence-based or evidence-informed treatment, including MAT, recovery services and supports, and prevention services for pregnant women – or women who could become pregnant – who have OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, and other measures to educate and provide support to families affected by Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.
  2. Expand comprehensive evidence-based treatment and recovery services, including MAT, for uninsured women with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions for up to 12 months postpartum.
  3. Provide training for obstetricians or other health care personnel who work with pregnant women and their families regarding treatment of OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
  4. Expand comprehensive evidence-based treatment and recovery support for NAS babies; expand services for better continuum of care with infant-need dyad, and expand long-term treatment and services for medical monitoring of NAS babies and their families.
  5. Provide training to health care providers who work with pregnant or parenting women on best practices for compliance with federal requirements that children born with NAS get referred to appropriate services and receive a plan of safe care.
  6. Provide child and family support for parenting women with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
  7. Provide enhanced family support and childcare services for parents with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions.
  8. Provide enhanced support for children and family members suffering trauma as a result of addiction in the family, and offer trauma-informed behavioral health treatment for adverse childhood events.
  9. Offer home-based wrap-around services to persons with OUD and any co-occurring SUD/MH conditions, including, but not limited to, parent skills training.
  10. Provide support for Children’s Services – fund additional positions and services, including supportive housing and other residential services, relating to children being removed from the home and/or placed in foster care due to custodial opioid use.