Shannon Kelly | Star-Tribune
A press release from U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) on Monday, September 24, announced that the Commonwealth of Virginia will be receiving $6,349,505 to help combat the opioid crisis thanks to a bill providing “approximately $5.7 billion to respond to the opioid crisis by developing non-opioid pain medication, and behavioral health workforce training.” According to the release, “fatal drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death in Virginia.” Piedmont Access to Health Services (PATHS) in Danville will be awarded $285,000 of this money to fund prevention and treatment initiatives to help remedy and combat the opioid epidemic.
“In the application [for the grant], there were several things that we noted,” explains Kay Crane, CEO at PATHS. One action will be putting trained professionals experienced with helping substance abusers and mental health counseling in schools. “We already have a pilot program that we are working on in Johnson Elementary, but with this grant, we would want to partner with the schools to have on-site professionals help with this,” Crane says. “We also would be looking at the possibility of collaboration with providing MAT [Medication Assistance Treatment]. There are certain medications that help people get off of opioids, like a step-down.” This idea is not currently set in stone, but is a possibility the company is considering. PATHS does not currently provide MAT; Crane explains that providers must be specially certified to take this route. “That’s something that we’ll be looking at; we haven’t decided for sure yet,” she says. The third initiative PATHS wants to use their grant money for is finding ways to work with other community agencies, such as the Health Department, Social Services, and similar agencies, to implement prevention measures.
“One of the reasons that we were awarded this grant was because of the great need in our area, and I do think it’s going to take the community working together to make a dent in this,” Crane says. “It certainly starts with prevention, but it’s kind of gotten out of hand now, so we have to have treatment options. If we all work together, I think we can come up with a plan that will at least maybe stop the overdoses and those kinds of things.”
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