Maine To Get $1.4M To Deal Opioid Crisis In Rural Areas

Maine To Get $1.4M To Deal Opioid Crisis In Rural Areas

Introduction

To lower the risk of deadly overdoses from fentanyl and other opioids in rural regions, Maine will receive $1.4 million in federal funds.

The money was announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of a national initiative to lower overdoses in rural areas. The Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness program and the MaineHealth statewide provider network will each get $900,000, the majority of the funds, to assist rural towns in meeting urgent needs, including distributing opioid overdose reversal drugs. The remaining $500,000 will support the MaineHealth network's efforts to prevent, treat, and care for newborns exposed to opioids in rural communities.

More than 100,000 people die nationwide each year from overdose, and residents of rural communities who are addicted to fentanyl, heroin or other opioids can face additional challenges in accessing treatment and recovery services, according to the DHHS. Along with geographic isolation and transportation barriers, rural parts of the state also have fewer providers of mental health and substance use health care.

Far too many rural families have faced the devastation of overdose, and these deaths are felt deeply across rural communities where often everyone knows someone lost too soon, said the department’s health resources and services administrator.

Despite increasing availability to treatment and the overdose-reversing medicine naloxone, overdose fatalities in Maine hit a record for the third year in a row in 2022, taking an estimated 716 lives. Between January 1 and July 31 of this year, there were 366 overdose deaths in Maine, which is fewer than the 397 overdose deaths during the same time frame previous year.