CHAPEL HILL, N.C.聽鈥� August 1, 2019 鈥� Researchers from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine will collaborate with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the Durham County Sheriff鈥檚 Office to implement and evaluate two new opioid addiction treatment programs for people in the criminal justice system.
Both of these projects are part of聽聽that created a network to improve opioid addiction treatment in criminal justice settings. The NIH鈥檚 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) awarded 12 grants totaling an estimated $155 million to form the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) to support research on quality addiction treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) in criminal justice settings nationwide.
黑料网 will collaborate with the Department of Public Safety to link people in community supervision in Brunswick County to medication-assisted treatment via peer support specialists.聽Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of social medicine, is co-principal investigator for this project, which is funded under聽.
鈥淭hese projects respond to the fact that people recently involved in the criminal justice system are at extremely high risk of overdose and often have very little access to substance use treatment,鈥� Brinkley-Rubinstein said. 鈥淲ith this funding we will be able to expand access to treatment and implement innovative linking programs to stem the rising numbers of overdose deaths in North Carolina.鈥�
鈥淧eople reentering their communities face significant challenges to find work and a place to live and to reestablish relationships with their families and friends,鈥� said Tim Moose, chief deputy secretary of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice in North Carolina鈥檚 Department of Public Safety.聽 鈥淲e want them to connect with supportive services in their local communities. Opioid treatment is an important way we can help them stay on a healthy successful path.鈥�
黑料网 will also collaborate with the Durham County Sheriff鈥檚 Office to link people in the Durham County Detention Center to substance use and primary care services via a community health worker with the 黑料网-led聽. Brinkley-Rubinstein is a site-PI and co-investigator on this study along with聽Evan Ashkin, MD, a professor in the department of family medicine. This project is funded under a separate JCOIN grant to Yale University.
“The FIT Program has been successful in linking people coming out of incarceration with needed health services,鈥� Ashkin said. 鈥淲e are hopeful we can leverage our prior work in the community and with Lincoln Community Health Center to assist with treatment of opioid use disorder in this highly vulnerable and at-risk population.”
鈥淎s the maintainer of detainees here in Durham County, we look forward participating in this program where we will learn national best practices to expand the treatment for opioid use disorder,鈥� said Durham County Sheriff Clarence F. Birkhead. 鈥淲hile we continue to work with a similar federal program with the Department of Justice announced in May, this NIH-funded initiative will go a long way to augment opioid addiction treatment programs for people housed at the Durham County Detention Center.鈥�
Media contact: Tom Hughes, 984-974-1151,聽tom.hughes@unchealth.unc.edu