Northeast Oregon Network

Removing Community Risks for Opioid Misuse in Eastern Oregon is a collaborative project with an overall goal of reducing the misuse of opioids by at-risk individuals, promoting stronger ties between service sectors, and providing culturally responsive care through the support of Traditional Health Workers (THWs), including Community Health Workers and Peers. This project serves seven rural and frontier counties in Eastern Oregon: Baker, Grant, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union, and Wallowa. The intervention targets individuals both at risk for Substance or Opioid Use Disorder (SUD/OUD) as identified by the Opioid Risk Tool and those who have a history of opioid misuse. Individuals may be enrolled in the program who face a complex set of barriers, including complex medical issues, behavioral health needs, homelessness or housing insecurity, food insecurity, and other challenges in addition to opioid misuse risk or treatment needs. The project focuses on reaching community members at key stages of their health journeys: when they are prescribed or weaned off opioids, when they are released from jail, and when they are referred to or return from treatment programs. The project builds on NEON’s successful Pathways Community Hub Program, which supports THWs who assist at-risk Community Members with social services and medical linkages that remove barriers to health and reduce the overall cost of care. This program funding allows the Hub to expand to serve two additional counties (Grant and Morrow) with opioid misuse risk reduction and response services. It also significantly enhances the work of THWs through the adoption of new software that will integrate with EHRs and jail systems to provide real-time alerts when community members will need extra support. This system will help integrate different sectors by allowing for internal closed-loop referrals and will facilitate HIPAA-compliant information sharing among sectors. THWs are an ideal workforce to reach these at-risk populations and keep them connected, as they are hired from the populations they serve - often speaking the languages of communities who have experienced health disparities - and are provided with training and support. Their primary function is patient engagement and ongoing linkage and support, including building relationships with individuals and doing home visits to assess their needs. THWs provide critical connection to the health system and can encourage compliance with treatment plans. This project also strengthens existing ties and build new relationships with community-based prevention coalitions, law enforcement, and recovery communities to enhance the project. These collaborations will result in the provision of drug takeback and linguistically and culturally appropriate prevention and recovery programming across the project area. NEON is also building the sustainability of project services and partnerships by certifying new THWs and working to integrate them into opioid misuse care teams and working to promote and educate organizations on billing procedures with the goal of securing long-term and sustainable THW care for the target population and the region as a whole.