The other three programs, totalling almost $22 million, will address high overdose death rates in tribal communities, prevention initiatives driven by data, and improving how well fatal and nonfatal opioid-involved overdoses are tracked.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that it will distribute $53 million in funding to 44 States, four tribes and the District of Columbia to be used in the continuing battle against opioid addiction.
Thirteen other states will get money from the Prescription Drug Overdose: Prevention for States program within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which aims to prevent overprescribing of opioids and drug overdoses.
Abuse of opioids, including heroin and prescription medicine, in the United States kills 78 people and results in over 1,000 emergency room visits per day, CBS News reported last week.
Faced with a nationwide opioid epidemic, the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday announced more than $4 million in funding to 12 states to support improved data collection and analysis around opioid misuse and overdose. “By helping at-risk counties assess their data in real time and educating them about naloxone and the role prescribing plays in this epidemic, we can make real progress in the fight against opioid abuse”. The program also seeks to raise community awareness and bring prescription drug misuse prevention activities and education to schools, communities, parents, prescribers, and their patients. “These deaths are preventable with the life-saving drug naloxone and more knowledge about how accidental overdoses can happen”. “States can use these funds to develop, implement and evaluate programs that save lives”, he said.
Kentucky and IN will both receive funds IN combatting the abuse of prescription drugs.
The Enhanced State Surveillance of Opioid-Involved Morbidity and Mortality will help the state better track fatal and non-fatal opioid-involved overdoses.
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President Obama has called on Congress to support a $1.1 billion proposal to provide financial backing to states.
