[A] new federal grant aims to support a more integrated system of opioid addiction treatment in Vermont and northern New England.
The University of Vermont is receiving a $6.6 million federal grant to set up a Rural Center of Excellence on Substance Use Disorders that will serve Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., made an announcement about the grant Thursday, joined by Suresh Garimella, president of the University of Vermont.
The new funding comes from an appropriations bill Leahy authored which provides $20 million to establish three rural centers to address opioid addiction around the country, according to a statement from his office. New York and Georgia are the other two recipients.
Richard Galbraith, vice president for research at UVM, said the plan is not to build a physical center but to make sure people with addiction have access to a more integrated treatment system right away, no matter where they live.
“You get all of the treatment and all of the things that you need at one place at one time, rather than having people going to here for one thing and there for another thing,” he said.
Galbraith said the objective is to make the system more responsive to multiple needs individuals may have, beyond just providing addiction treatment.
“It’s not just giving somebody a drug and saying ‘goodbye.’ It’s meeting with a counselor. If they’re pregnant, it’s talking to the obstetrician who’s looking after them,” Galbraith said. “If they have a family, maybe the family is impacted. Maybe they need to get help from a social worker.”
UVM is partnering with UVM Medical Center and the UVM Health Network to execute the program, said Galbraith. In two or three years, the same model, with the necessary revision, will be applied to New Hampshire and Maine to improve the addiction problem.
Galbraith said UVM is expecting to get the federal funding within two weeks and will start the work right away.
According to data from Vermont Department of Health, there have been 39 opioid-related fatalities among Vermont residents through May this year. Of those cases, 82% involved the strong synthetic opioid fentanyl. In late July, three fatal overdoses happened within five days in Chittenden County, causing public concern.
Leahy said in his statement that every community and family has been touched in some way by the struggle of addiction. Rural communities across Vermont have been at the “front lines” of the opioid epidemic, facing unique challenges, he said.
“It is my hope that this new center will help rural communities confront and halt the scourge of opioid and other addictions in their tracks,” he said.