Virginia Rural Health Association

Misuse of prescription and illicit opioids has become a top priority public health issue in the past decade, and its effects on rural communities cannot be understated. Effective, evidence-based treatment of opioid use disorders is urgently needed in small towns across America. The National Rural Health Association documents multiple barriers which stand in the way of appropriate treatment availability and quality. These include a decaying rural mental health and substance abuse treatment infrastructure, lack of regional coordination of treatment resources, lack of support of rural physicians providing substance abuse treatment, administrative barriers against the most effective form of opioid abuse treatment, and a shortage of rural physicians who provide Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT). In addition to these logistical barriers, outdated mindsets of how persons with Substance Use Disorders are perceived creates artificial barriers. Stigma criminalizes persons with Substance Use Disorders and portrays them as immoral or weak, instead of in need of healthcare interventions. Specifically, stigma has created gaps in providing Persons Who Use Drugs with the evidence-based programs they need to manage their disease. Virginia Rural Health Association will use this funding to establish the Virginia Piedmont Harm Reduction Coalition, which will work to expand Comprehensive Harm Reduction services and create a complementary network of programs to address Substance Use Disorder in Franklin, Henry, and Patrick counties and the City of Martinsville. This initiative will be led by the VRHA in cooperation with the Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition, Unite Us, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute, and the New College Institute.