Grant aims to decrease substance abuse

Public health officials hope a $3 million grant - a portion of which will go to Cedar Rapids' Area Substance Abuse Council - will allow the state to better treat those abusing prescription drugs and heroin.

The Iowa Department of Public Health said Thursday it will distribute Medication Assisted Treatment grants to four Iowa providers - ASAC, Jackson Recovery Center in Sioux City, United Community Services Inc. in Des Moines and Mercy Turning Point Treatment Center in Dubuque.

The grants are designed to decrease substance abuse, expand and improve medication-assisted treatment and increase the number of Iowans receiving medication-assisted treatment.

'This really is a godsend to us,” said Laurel Merrick, resource development director at ASAC, which offers prevention and treatment services.

The $120,756 that ASAC received will be used to buy drugs needed to treat clients.

'You really want everything at your disposal to help these clients,” Merrick said.

ASAC medical director Dr. Michael Simison had been pushing to offer these services.

'But for a long time, the idea was these programs need to be abstinence-based,” he said. 'There are certain medications that help people get clean and stay clean.”

ASAC likely will meet soon to 'hammer out the details,” Simison said, which will include the types of medications it will offer to patients.

'We're probably going to get one patient a week started and then ramp it up,” he said. 'We'll focus initially on those in our residential program and eventually offer it to outpatients, but that's a ways down the road.”

The state has had opioid treatment programs for about seven years, but it recently has started enhancing services, said Kevin Gabbert, Access to Recovery project director for the Iowa Department of Public Health. Access to Recovery is a four-year, federally funded initiative that works to provide aid to those recovering from substance abuse through use of a voucher system to buy services such as sober housing, education, transportation and utilities.

Those admitted for treatment with an opiate as their primary drug grew statewide from 677 people in 2007 to 1,707 in 2012 - a 152 percent increase. Thirty-three Iowans died from opioid overdoses last year, with 19 of those dying of heroin overdoses, according to state data.

In Cedar Rapids, 44 of 52 reported overdoses were heroin-related as of June 5. Heroin has accounted for 85 percent of all overdose calls this year, the Cedar Rapids Police Department has reported.

The state would like to get 100 physicians trained to prescribe Buprenorphine, a medication that treats heroin addiction, Gabbert said. The online class, which takes six to eight hours, will be targeted to a variety of physicians.

The state also is offering a free online program that aims to broaden physicians' knowledge about heroin and opioid abuse as well as discuss options other than prescribing painkillers.

The first step

Need help with a substance-abuse problem? Call the Area Substance Abuse Council at (319) 390-4611 or go to its website at asac.us/need-help