KODIAK — The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is set to receive nearly $3 million in federal funding each year to fight opioid addiction and overdoses in the state.
The grants announced last week are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The department says the funds will go toward drug monitoring and analysis, increasing medication-assisted treatment programs as well as training for the distribution of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, The Kodiak Daily Mirror reported.
State health department spokeswoman Dawnell Smith said the city of Anchorage along with Mat-Su, Kenai Peninsula, Fairbanks North Star, and Juneau boroughs have been identified as areas of greatest need.
“Through these federal grants, DHSS will collaborate with all regions to help develop prevention programs, do outreach and public education, and increase naloxone availability,” Smith said in an email. “Guidance and planning documents, along with training, outreach and education materials, will be available statewide.”
The money will help fund the state’s data collection, which Smith said includes hospital discharges, drug treatment facility admissions and death certificates.
The new funds include $750,000 each for three years from the CDC for the data collection and evaluation. The state will receive $1 million from the federal health department’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for three years to boost medication-assisted treatment programs. The administration will provide another $1 million for five years to support naloxone distribution and training in Alaska.
