Three organizations in North Carolina are set to receive millions in federal funding to bolster treatment and recovery services for substance use disorder in rural communities, where residents are at greater risk of drug overdose but often face higher barriers to care.
Carole Johnson, head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration, announced the grants, which total nearly $9 million and will be awarded in installments over the next four years, during an event in Wilson County on Monday.
Recipients include Integrated Care of Greater Hickory in Catawba County, the United Way of Rutherford County and the Wilson County Substance Abuse Coalition, organizations in counties that have seen high rates of opioid abuse.
Rutherford County, for instance, has the state’s third-highest rate of emergency department visits for opioid overdose relative to its population, with 169 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents from September 2023 to August 2024. That’s more than double the statewide rate of 68.4 hospitalizations, according to data from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
“Our hope is really that services will expand [in the areas served by the organizations] so people will get more access to treatment, including medications for opioid use disorder — the clinical standard for treatment — and more support for recovery services,” Johnson said in an interview.
North Carolina’s awardees are among 18 organizations in 13 states selected for funding through the federal agency’s Rural Communities Opioid Response Program. HRSA began soliciting applications for the grants in March.
Crossing county lines
The Wilson County Substance Abuse Coalition’s winning proposal focused on widening access to inpatient care through the Hope Alliance program.
According to its website, the Hope Alliance partners with “detox facilities and treatment centers in North Carolina and surrounding states” to secure care for residents with substance use disorder. Patients are referred to the providers after completing an assessment over the phone or at the Wilson Police Department, where the program’s coordinator is based.
But Jeff Hill, executive director of the coalition, said the Hope Alliance’s services, which began in 2017, have been “specific to Wilson County residents up to this point.”
The coalition is using its $2.9 million grant to extend the program to patients in nearby Nash, Edgecombe, Warren and Wayne counties. The 4,060 members of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe — a community clustered in Halifax and Warren counties — will also be eligible for services.
At the same time, he acknowledged that “every county is different.”
