MORGANTOWN – WVU has received a $1 million federal grant to continue its Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP), to bring opioid prevention, treatment and recovery resources to 10 rural counties.
Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito jointly announced the grant Wednesday, along with a $1 million RCORP grant to Boone Memorial Hospital, both from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS explains that RCORP is a multi-year initiative by the Health Resources and Services Administration aimed at reducing the morbidity and mortality of substance use disorder, including opioid use disorder, in rural communities at the highest risk.
WVU’s Institute for Community and Rural Health spearheads the project.
Amy Snodgrass is project director for WVU’s Rural Communities Opioid Response (RCOR). She said the program began in 2019 with seven Ohio River Valley Counties – Wood, Pleasants, Roane, Calhoun, Gilmer, Ritchie, and Jackson – and is now expanding to include Doddridge, Wirt and Tyler.
They operate under the name Mid-Ohio Valley RCORP Consortium. They’ll use the money to continue to build upon the service agency collaborations begun under the initial grant, she said. “Rural communities really struggle because they just don’t have access to programs and services.”
A large part of their outreach, she said, is providing access to services through mobile units, including medically assisted treatment and therapy through telehealth. The rural areas often lack broadband and the mobile units provide a site for telehealth to be provided.
Snodgrass said they learned through conducting RCOR under the initial grant that people in the rural areas need access to resources that those in the more urbanized areas of the state take for granted. And someone who has completed treatment and is coming back to their home county needs to connect to those resources that may not be there without RCOR.
In Grantsville, Calhoun County, she said, they’re creating a drop-in center that they hope will be a model for other counties – offering a place for shelter, getting a meal, taking a shower.
Anyone who spends time at the state Capitol will hear it said that community service agencies frequently operate in silos, disconnected from each other.
But RCOR, Snodgrass said, builds a collaboration of community partners, which empowers local communities.
Victoria Sanchez is principal investigator under WVU’s RCOR grant. She said she oversees execution of the grant in terms of reporting to HHS, making sure project goals are met and other matters.
“The work is largely done by our partners,” she said. “It’s one of those really nice examples of the execution of the land-grant mission.” WVU provides the resources to obtain the awards to support community-based programs.
The original partner agencies, she said, were Mid-Ohio Valley Rural Health Alliance, Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, Minnie Hamilton Health System, Northern West Virginia Rural Health Education Center and Westbrook Health Services. Under the expansion, Coplin Health Systems, Ritchie Health System and Calhoun County Family Resource Network have joined the consortium.
They are seeing growth both in terms of services being offered and services being used, she said.
“One of the things I’m most impressed by in working with this group of people is how well they work together,” she said. They work in different areas but under this collaboration their services complement each other.
Senators comment
Manchin said of the grants, “Every West Virginian has been impacted by the drug epidemic that continues to ravage our state. Combating this heartbreaking epidemic continues to be a top priority of mine, and I am pleased HHS is investing in Boone Memorial Hospital and West Virginia University as they continue to offer these essential healthcare services. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee I will continue advocating for resources to combat the drug epidemic across the Mountain State.”
Capito said, “In our battle against the addiction crisis, we must continue to connect West Virginia’s substance use and prevention organizations with the resources they need. This funding announced today for Boone Memorial Hospital and WVU is welcome news, as it can help create healthier and safer communities. The opioid epidemic has touched all of us in one way or another, and I will continue to advocate for the support our local leaders need to pursue solutions that will help West Virginians struggling with addiction get the help they need.”
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