Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced availability of more than $100 million in funding over the next five years for 12 new Intensive Crisis Stabilization Centers across the State that will provide immediate care for people who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis. The Office of Mental Health (OMH) and the Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), have issued a joint Request for Proposals to fund development of the Centers. Read more here.

As if anyone needed a reminder about the severity of substance use disorder (SUD), the number of deaths from drug overdoses continues to provide a sobering snapshot. As 2021 wound down, the CDC reported that overdose deaths reached yet another record level on a 12-month basis. More recently, the CDC released provisional data indicating no let up in the epidemic, as year-over-year deaths are on track to exceed 101,000. And many of the deaths are opioid-related, responsible for 70% of all SUD fatalities since 2019.

More SUD treatment providers have been busy dispensing services in a market estimated to be worth anywhere between $4.5 billion and $42 billion. Now, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is trying its hand at stemming the SUD tide with a value-based treatment pilot program. Read more here.

Additional articles of interest: Value-Based Care is the Future, Says Caron Treatment Centers CEO

Crisis Text Line is one of the world’s most prominent mental health support lines, a tech-driven nonprofit that uses big data and artificial intelligence to help people cope with traumas such as self-harm, emotional abuse and thoughts of suicide.

But the data the charity collects from its online text conversations with people in their darkest moments does not end there: The organization’s for-profit spinoff uses a sliced and repackaged version of that information to create and market customer service software. Read more here.

The Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE), a private 501(c)(3) national grant-making foundation focused on ending the nation’s opioid crisis, is announcing 11 new grants totaling $4.8 million to support innovative solutions to some of the opioid crisis’ most challenging problems.

“We are launching our Innovation Program to generate and support new approaches to some of the long-standing barriers to making real progress in addressing the opioid crisis – how to better tackle stigma, generate more timely and actionable data, and help for people transitioning from treatment to long-term recovery,” says FORE President Dr. Karen A. Scott. Read more here.

The death rates associated with the opioid crisis are so staggering that they can be difficult to comprehend through statistics alone. According to New York State and City health department data, at least 4,181 people died from opioid overdoses in the state in 2020—a per capita rate of 20.7 per 100,000. To put that into perspective, this annual rate has more than quadrupled in a decade. More than any other region, the Hudson Valley and Catskills have disproportionately borne the burden of the crisis. Sullivan County’s opioid overdose death rate was triple that of the rest of the state in 2020. While the Department of Health’s data for 2020 are still preliminary, opioid overdose is a chronically undercounted phenomenon. Read more here.

Additional articles of interest: Two powerful drugs now adding to US overdose crisis

At the start of the year, I wrote about one of the emerging trends from 2021—”integrated care” is increasingly happening via integration of consumer data and financial incentives (see For Integration, It’s The Information – A Trend Driving 2022 Strategy)—with physical location of service delivery of less importance. With the pandemic-driven adoption of virtual primary care, ‘integrated consumer data’ is now a euphemism for ‘integrated care”.

Interestingly, virtual primary care and integrated consumer data are driving another phenomenon—the return of the managed behavioral health carve-out. The big difference—the new managed behavioral health carve-out is a tech-enabled carve-out. Technology plays two roles in the emerging ‘next generation’ carve-outs. First, with more treatment going digital, it is feasible for a behavioral health carve-out model to be fully integrated into the consumer’s health record—and to focus on reducing total costs of care. Second, analysis of consumer data using augmented intelligence (AI) has the potential to reduce the staffing requirements—and the costs—for managing behavioral health benefits. Read more here.

New York Attorney General Letitia James last week marked a key milestone in her efforts to bring billions of dollars in much-needed resources to communities across the country through the $26 billion opioid agreement with the nation’s three major pharmaceutical distributors — Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen — and Johnson & Johnson over the companies’ role in creating and fueling the nationwide opioid crisis. Since the agreement in July, which included 52 states and territories, thousands of local governments across the country have joined during the subdivision sign-on period. New York has secured full subdivision participation, ensuring that New York will receive the maximum amount of $230 million available under the settlement agreement. Read more here.

Additional article of interest: Tribes Reach $590 Million Opioid Settlement With J. & J. and Distributors

Fatal overdoses in New York have nearly tripled in the last decade, with nearly 85 percent of them linked to controlled substances, including opioids. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates fatal opioid overdoses kill 91 people each day in the U.S.

To help combat its opioid crisis, the U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of $1,863,816 in incremental funding to the New York State Department of Labor to support job creation and workforce training services in 22 localities. The award will serve individuals in communities where widespread opioid use, addiction and overdose have had significant social and economic impacts including the counties of Clinton, Columbia, Duchess, Essex, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Herkimer, Madison, Monroe, Nassau (the City of Long Beach and the Town of Hempstead), Oneida, Ontario, Onondaga, Orange, Putnam, Seneca, Suffolk, Sullivan, Wayne, Westchester and Yates. Read more here.

This year, Friends of Recovery – New York will be hosting our annual Stand Up For Recovery Day virtually on February 8, 2022 from 8:30 am - 3 pm.

What is Stand Up For Recovery Day? Stand Up For Recovery Day is a day in which recovery warriors from various Recovery Community Organizations throughout the state gather in order to both celebrate recovery from addictions, but more so, to educate decision-makers and the general public about the recovery movement. Click here for more information and to register.

February 7, 3:30 - 5 pm, NASMHPD

February 8, 1 - 2 pm, NASHP

February 8 - 2:30 - 3:30 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing

February 9, 1 - 2 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing

February 9, 3 - 4:30 pm, NAADAC

February 10, 12 - 1 pm, Social Current

February 10, 3 - 4 pm, OMH

February 15, 2 - 3 pm, HMA

February 16, 10 - 11:30 am, OMH

February 16, 3 - 4 pm, SAMHSA's GAINS Center

February 17, 12 - 12:30 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing

February 22, 2 - 3 pm, OMH

February 22, 3 - 4 pm, NACo

February 23, 1 - 4 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing

February 24, 1 - 2 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing

February 24, 2:30 - 3:30 pm, HHRC

February 24, 3 - 4:30 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing

February 24, 3 - 4 pm, OMH

February 3: 3 - 4 pm

February 8: 10 - 11:30 am

February 10: 11 am - 12 pm

February 11

February 16: 9 - 10:30 am

February 17: 1 - 3 pm

February 21

March 7: 9:30 - 11:30 am

March 8: 9:30 - 11:30 am

March 9: 9:30 - 11:30 am

March 10: 11 am - 12 pm

March 10: 3 - 4 pm

March 14: 10 - 11:30 am

March 15: 11:30 am - 1 pm

March 17: 1 - 2:30 pm