University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler

There are increasing concerns about the opioid and drug abuse crisis in our community as it continues to create havoc in the lives of individuals, families and the community at large. The economic burden is enormous, with huge strain on our healthcare, workforce, and criminal justice systems. The rate of opioid overdose death and the number of Texas adults reporting non-medical use of pain relievers continue to increase at alarming rates. The issue is even more devastating in the rural communities of the state where one in seven high school students takes prescription drugs without a doctor’s prescription. In Anderson and Cherokee Counties (ACC) drug overdose death rates exceed the State of Texas, and yet residents suffer from a gross inadequacy of prevention, treatment, and recovery services. Compounding the inadequacy of prevention, treatment, and recovery services within these rural communities, is the lack of adequate information to help paint the true picture of the situation. It is critical to establish a system of care where individuals at risk of opioid use disorder are properly identified, screened/diagnosed, engaged/initiated, retained in treatment, and followed-up for remission while addressing identified gaps and disparities in care/services and adapting to changing conditions. The Anderson and Cherokee Counties Opioid Response (ANCHOR) Project is designed to help address the issue. The target population and the service area for the ANCHOR project are the completely rural and medically underserved Anderson and Cherokee Counties, Texas. The project will be implemented by a consortium comprising of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, UTHSCT, The University of Texas Health East Texas (UTHET) at Jacksonville, The East Texas Council of Alcohol and Drug Abuse (ETCADA) at Longview and The Anderson Cherokee Community Enrichment Services (ACCESS) at Jacksonville jointly referred to as the ANCHOR Consortium. The ANCHOR Consortium seeks to strengthen and expand access to Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and other Substance Use Disorder (SUD) services in this heavily burdened and grossly underserved community by implementing specific core activities consistent with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) five-point strategy to combat the opioid epidemic. The goal of the proposed ANCHOR project is to build, strengthen and sustain a cascade of care model that will enhance Anderson and Cherokee Counties (ACC) resident’s ability to access OUD/SUD prevention, treatment and recovery services. Over the period of 3 years, the Consortium, through the ANCHO Project will: Objective 1: Mobilize and organize community members into a multi-stakeholder collective impact initiative (The ACHOR Coalition) and empower them to support the implementation of culturally and linguistically appropriate evidence-based programs that focus on establishing a continuum of care for OUD/SUD (from primary prevention through remission), using data cascade to assess quality, identify gaps and disparities in service while adapting to changing conditions and ensuring sustainability. Objective 2: Enhance ACC residents’ ability to access SUD/OUD prevention services by improving awareness, screening, prevention workforce and community resources for SUD/OUD prevention including overdose prevention, treatment, and reversal. Objective 3: Increase access to SUD/OUD treatment services for ACC residents by training and coordinating a diverse team of providers to support integrated treatment, screening community members at risk of OUD/SUD, and establishing linkage and seamless referral to care. Objective 4: Expand and enhance recovery services to patients with SUD/OUD in ACC including developing recovery communities, peer workforce programing and discharge coordination.