Five agencies receive federal funding to serve as substance use prevention task forces

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities & Hospitals announced today that it has made awards – totaling $1.4 million in federal block grant funds – to five agencies.

These funds will be used to enable the agencies to create regional Prevention Task Forces, which will provide comprehensive substance use prevention and behavioral health promotion services.

After a request for proposals, the BHDDH chose five agencies and identified the regional areas of Rhode Island each will serve. They are: The Woonsocket Prevention Coalition Corp. – to serve Burrillville, Woonsocket, Cumberland, Lincoln, Pawtucket, North Smithfield and Central Falls; the Providence Healthy Communities Office – to serve Providence; the BAY Team – to serve East Providence, Barrington, Warren and Bristol; Newport County Prevention Coalition – to serve Portsmouth, Tiverton, Little Compton, Jamestown, Middletown and Newport; and Coastline EAP – to serve North Kingstown, Narragansett, South Kingstown, Hopkinton, Richmond, Charlestown, Westerly and New Shoreham.

A spokesperson for the BHDDH told Providence Business News that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded BHDDH the funds through the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant. Although funds are already authorized for this fiscal year, they are not paid up front; rather, expenditures are made using state funds and reimbursement is then requested. Asked if there are concerns that funding may be cut off due to a GOP-controlled White House and Congress, the spokesperson reported, “BHDDH has been receiving the Block Grant for 20-plus years. Throughout the changing political landscape over the past two decades, [BHDDH] has never not received allocated funds.

- Advertisement -

Later, BHDDH will fund Prevention Task Forces for southern Providence County (Glocester, Foster, Scituate, Smithfield, Johnston, Cranston and North Providence) and Kent County (Coventry, West Greenwich, East Greenwich, Warwick and Exeter). The Request For Proposals for that work will be posted in the spring of 2017 on Rhode Island’s purchasing website, www.purchasing.ri.gov.

Substance abuse prevention remains a key initiative in Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force Strategic Action Plan to reduce opioid overdose deaths in Rhode Island. Citing data from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the Providence Business News reported that, in 2015, Rhode Island was among the top five states with the highest rates of deaths from drug overdoses, with 28.2 per 100,000 individuals.

Over the next five years, the Task Forces will use their funding to assess community substance use prevention needs, resources and behavioral health promotion, reported BHDDH. Each will develop a capacity-building plan to address resource or community readiness shortfalls and a local strategic plan. In addition, they will implement evidence-based and best-practice interventions based on each community’s specific needs, while regularly evaluating their efforts’ impact.

Previously, 34 organizations served as Prevention Task Forces for their cities and towns. With seven Regional Prevention Task Forces, this initiative will oversee the planning and delivery of substance use prevention and behavioral health promotion activities within the cities and towns within the region. By including city and town representation on each Task Force, individual communities will continue to play an active and integral role in planning, providing and promoting behavioral health services.

No posts to display