15PBJA21GK01074MUMU

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 87,203 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States between September 2019 and September 2020. Although overdose deaths were on the rise before the onset of COVID-19, evidence points to an acceleration during the pandemic. Final 2020 data has not yet been reported, but the CDC estimates that the total could exceed 90,000 overdose deaths.

The intersecting crises of the pandemic and the rise in overdose fatalities compelled federal agencies to adopt measures to treat substance use disorders (SUD) through innovative strategies for maintaining connections. These strategies include widespread use of teletherapy, allowing patients unable to visit an opioid treatment program daily to obtain up to 28 days of take-home medication, and allowing practitioners to prescribe buprenorphine to new patients with opioid use disorder following a phone evaluation.

As some areas of our nation emerge from the pandemic, the Bureau of Justice Assistance's Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP)-supported projects are ideally positioned to support the Biden administration's vision to steer American communities toward expanded, comprehensive, and sustainable responses to SUD that prioritize prevention, treatment, recovery, and harm reduction. As the COSSAP network hub for training and technical assistance (TTA) since the program's inception in 2017, the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) will continue to serve as the nexus of a nationwide COSSAP community of practice that is helping to turn the tide in the battle against substance use.

IIR will continue to leverage innovative and proven coordination processes and infrastructure to meet the needs of the COSSAP initiative. This includes providing logistical support for and delivering webinars, podcasts, and other distance learning opportunities, producing, editing, and electronically distributing COSSAP quarterly updates and other program products, coordinating annual applicant webinars, stakeholder briefings, and new grantee orientation calls, collecting, distributing, and maintaining project-specific communication, articles of interest, reports, and other information, developing content for, maintaining, and enhancing the COSSAP Resource Center website, and providing support to enhance efforts to build public health and public safety partnerships to address opioid, stimulant, and other substance use in rural jurisdictions.

A unified COSSAP network is a fundamental underpinning of the program's success. As the hub for the entire scope of TTA efforts, IIR will continue to coordinate COSSAP TTA collaborative calls, collaborate on performance measurement collection, facilitate consensus-driven agenda development for various COSSAP meetings, and support other TTA team tasks and mechanisms as guided by BJA.

In Institute For Intergovernmental Research

THE COMPREHENSIVE OPIOID STIMULANT AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE LOGISTICS PROGRAM (COSSAP) WAS DEVELOPED AS PART OF THE COMPREHENSIVE ADDICTION AND RECOVERY ACT (CARA) LEGISLATION. THE COSSAP LOGISTICS TTA'S PURPOSE IS TO PROVIDE A RESOURCE CENTER AND MANAGE TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO STATES, UNITS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, AND INDIAN TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS. THE COSSAP TTA LOGISTICS PROVIDER WILL ASSIST GRANTEES AND NON-GRANTEES TO PLAN, DEVELOP, AND IMPLEMENT COMPREHENSIVE EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY, RESPOND TO, TREAT, AND SUPPORT THOSE IMPACTED BY OPIOIDS, STIMULANTS, METHAMPHETAMINE AND OTHER DRUGS.

16.838 - Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program

Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) [DOJ - OJP]

Tallahassee, Florida 32317-2729 United States

Single Zip Code

BJA FY 21 Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program Training and Technical Assistance Program - Logistics (O-BJA-2021-94009)

Amendment Since initial award the End Date has been extended from 09/30/24 to 09/30/25 and the total obligations have increased 112% from $8,750,000 to $18,533,000.