The state continues to offer incentives for medical providers to start treating opioid use disorder.
The Delaware Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH) is offering up to $100,000 to providers who want to start screening for opioid use disorder and making referrals for treatment. And it will pay up to $500,000 to those who will start treating patients with opioid use disorder using medications like buprenorphine.
“This grant opportunity mechanism is really about recruiting new people into the space while expanding the current capacity,” said DSAMH Chief of Workforce Development and Education Brent Waninger. “So really trying to get those that are maybe a little timid about entering into the space.”
These grants are funded by federal dollars. State dollars have been earmarked for this issue as well through a similar program in Delaware’s Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance announced two months ago.
Waninger says, as with the Medicaid program, awardees will be enrolled in the state’s Opioid Response Providers Network.
“Learn in this learning collaborative space about best practices, what works in the environment for clientele in different geographic regions in the state, different practice settings in the state,” he said.
Grant applications are due June 14, and funded projects may begin as early as the start of July.
Delaware had the second highest overdose death rate in the nation in 2019 with 431 deaths, and officials say that number increased last year to 446.
