The Cumberland County Department of Public Health is seeking proposals for its latest round of funding from national opioid settlements.
Five projects proposed by nonprofit organizations, governmental agencies, hospital systems or private behavioral health and mental health providers will receive up to $800,000 across four years.
Proposed projects should address contributors to the county’s opioid crisis. Cumberland County accounts for almost 4% of North Carolina’s total opioid overdose emergency department visits so far this year, according to data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Thirty people in Cumberland County went to the emergency department for an opioid overdose in January and February, down by 17% compared to last year.
The public health department’s press release states projects can provide re-entry services for those coming out of incarceration, housing for those in substance use disorder treatment, early intervention strategies, or a combination.
Generally, services must fall into one of two categories — “Option A” or “Option B” — based on state requirements for opioid settlement spending. “Option A” is one of the 12 “high-impact opioid abatement strategies” selected by the state, including substance use disorder treatment and syringe exchange. Previous “Option A” strategies funded by the county included the Cumberland-Fayetteville Opioid Response Team (C-FORT), a collaborative of county and community organizations addressing the county’s opioid crisis, and distribution of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone.
“Option B” strategies are long-term “opioid remediation activities” like expanding telehealth or law enforcement training. Cumberland County has funded a single “Option B” strategy, providing $450,000 for drug prevention education in county K-12 schools last fall.
Organizations must provide their services at the Recovery Resource Center, the county’s substance use disorder resource hub.
Projects must also be a collaboration between a health care, substance use, or mental health provider and a community-based organization, a new requirement for this request for proposals.
“This gives us an opportunity to strengthen the network of care we have in our community,” Jennifer Green, director of the Cumberland County Department of Public Health, told CityView. “We hope to build upon existing partnerships and even create new partnerships. Through partnerships, we hope that the individuals served receive more comprehensive care that improves their overall outcomes in recovery.”
Partnered organizations should submit a single, joint application detailing the budget associated with each strategy they will implement. Green emphasized that each line must be justifiable, and any capital expenses must be tied to treatment.
Funding will be distributed to the lead organization on the proposal, which will then be responsible for distributing its partner’s share.
The proposal’s project narrative should include how organizations work together to provide wraparound services — comprehensive services that address substance use disorders and factors that contribute to them — to those with substance use disorders and their loved ones. It should also address each organization’s capacity, including staff experience. The request for proposal states that organizations must have at least three years of experience and demonstrated success in the services proposed.
“We see this as an opportunity for our community to implement evidence-based, data-driven, but also innovative strategies to the opioid crisis,” Green said. “We’re looking for ways to build upon, but not duplicate, existing services in the community.”
The partnership requirement came from feedback given during town halls held by the public health department last fall. Green said residents described the need to connect those in treatment to other services like primary care or employment. The partnerships will focus on “treating the whole person,” she said, creating direct links between health care and social services.
Green and other public health officials also heard about smaller nonprofits’ struggles to get funding. To address this, the proposal review board (which includes those with lived experience with substance use disorders) is providing up to eight additional points to partnerships with organizations that have never received county funds and have budgets of less than $1 million.
Green hopes the partnerships will help organizations apply for bigger grants in the future.
“Some of our smaller nonprofits may want to partner with more established agencies. That gives both agencies experience in receiving grant funding related to substance use,” she said. “Which hopefully will make them more competitive in bringing state and federal dollars to our community in the future.”
Proposals are due by 2 p.m. on May 30. Organizations with questions about the request for proposals or application can contact Lorena Santos, Cumberland County purchasing manager, at 910-678-7743 or cumberlandpurchasing@cumberlandcountync.gov. Questions must be submitted by 2 p.m. Friday, April 25. The county Department of Public Health will post answers on its website no sooner than April 30.
The total $4 million going to the final selected projects comes from the over $31.8 million Cumberland County is receiving from a handful of national opioid settlements. This doesn’t include the recent Mylan settlement, which North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson said could bring as much as $9 million to the state.
North Carolina is passing most of the money, about 85%, from national opioid settlements down to counties and municipalities. Cumberland County’s funding is being distributed over 18 years, from 2022 to 2038.
More information on Cumberland County and North Carolina’s share of national opioid settlements is available on the CORE-NC and More Powerful NC websites.
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville.