INDIANA — Clark County is one of 12 Indiana counties that will receive funding to expand overdose prevention outreach programs, according to a news release.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced the award of $519,117 to the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) to distribute to the 18 counties, identified as having high overdose rates. It runs through August 2017.
In 2014, 452 people died in Indiana of opioid-related drug overdoses with 2,822 people visiting emergency rooms for opioid overdoses, according to the release.
The funding is intended to help with technical assistance to local health coalitions, increased data collection to make informed decisions about the counties' drug issues and shifts and to increase awareness of opioid prescribing habits.
It will also be used to provide education and training for medical staff and lay people to administer naloxone, the potentially lifesaving drug that can stop and reverse an opioid overdose. Clark County has recently received word that it will receive an ISDH award for 200 naloxone kits throughout the rest of 2016.
The outreach funding from the CDC was announced on International Overdose Awareness Day, a day to raise awareness of overdose risk and help remove the stigma of deaths related to drugs.
Other counties included in the award are Crawford, Delaware, Grant, Jennings, LaPorte, Marion, Morgan, Pulaski, Sullivan, Tipton and Washington. Blackford, Starke, Montgomery, Lawrence, Howard and Vanderburgh counties had already been receiving assistance through another grant, the release states.