Steven Godin, PHD, MPH received a SAMHSA award for an important community engagement project this last Thursday. The project, titled “Applying the Accountable Health Communities Model in a Regional Opioid Response,” tackles OUD/Methamphetamine abuse among Native populations in the Salt Lake Valley and in the Ibpah, Utah region. The integrated approach proposed by the project simultaneously seeks to address social service needs such as food security while training Elders in recognizing and combating opioid misuse in their communities, increasing the effectiveness, cultural sensitivity, and reach of the public health efforts. The focus of the project is to provide a supportive network for holistically approaching the issues of opioid abuse. In addition to this supportive framework, the project adds integration of oral health services and health informatics by using an online “medicine wheel” tool to help case manage program participants.
The project, proposed by Dr. Godin in late April, was awarded $249,762 for the next two years. Dr. Godin will serve as the external evaluator, and the Sacred Circle Health Clinic, which is run by the Confederate Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, is the lead organization. "In keeping with our Departmental mission, this SAMHSA initiative helps further solidify our collaborative efforts with community-based agencies to address health disparities," says Dr. Godin.