HB147074

Rural Communities Opioid Response Program - Medication Assisted Treatment Access - Address: Prestera Center, 3375 US RT 60 E, Huntington WV 25705.

Project Director's Name: Ken Fitzwater. Contact Phone Number: 304.525.7851, Extension 5007. E-mail: KEN.FITZWATER@PRESTERA.ORG. Website Address: www.prestera.org.

All grant funds requested: $1,000,000.00.

Prestera Center for Mental Health Services, Inc proposes to add new Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) access points that serve adults eighteen years and older with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and/or Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) across six rural West Virginia counties: Boone, Mason, Lincoln, Clay, Monroe, and Summers counties.

These counties are each physically located in HRSA-designated rural areas (as defined by the Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer). These counties were selected because there are either few or no MAT providers currently located in each county.

Establishing one new MAT access point in each of six rural counties, increasing MAT capacity, and sustaining MAT services in these rural counties are consistent with HRSA's and Prestera's mission, goals, and purposes.

West Virginia (WV) has led the US in overdose deaths per capita for the past decade while possessing the lowest rates of access to evidence-based life-saving Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT).1

WV has the highest annual drug mortality rate per capita in the nation2, the highest overdose rates in the nation3, the highest rate of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome births (at 48.1 per 1,000 live births in WV compared to the national average of 7.1 per 1,000 live births nationwide)4, and the highest number of prescription pharmaceuticals and opioids distributed per capita in the US5.

The reasons for high levels of opioid and other substance use could be a combination of Appalachian cultural factors, including high rates of poverty, a consistently depressed economy, lack of education, a high level of prescribing and dispensing opioids and other prescription drugs6, and little to no access to medication assisted treatment services in these very rural counties.

Prestera Center proposes a partnership with a sister comprehensive community behavioral health center, FMRS, Inc (named for the four counties they serve: Fayette, Monroe, Raleigh, and Summers counties in West Virginia). FMRS will provide one new MAT access point leading to MAT services in each of their rural clinic locations in Monroe and Summers counties in WV.

Prestera will provide new MAT access points and services in Lincoln, Clay, Boone, and Mason counties. Evidence-based practices are used in partnership with clients to cultivate optimal outcomes.

Prestera Center and FMRS have a rich history of collaboration and partnership as 2 of 13 original comprehensive community mental health centers in West Virginia dating back to US President Kennedy's "Mental Health Act" that started Prestera Center in 1967 and FMRS in 1968.

Both FMRS and Prestera Center possess the knowledge, experience, and expertise to implement new MAT access points and MAT services across six WV counties and sustain the services long after the grant funds have expired.

Prestera Center For Mental Health Services

NOT APPLICABLE

93.155 - Rural Health Research Centers

HRSA Office of Federal Assistance Management (OFAM) [HHS - HRSA]

Point Pleasant, West Virginia United States

City-Wide

Rural Communities Opioid Response Program – Medication Assisted Treatment Access (HRSA-22-165)

Amendment Since initial award the End Date has been shortened from 09/29/25 to 08/31/25 and the total obligations have increased 200% from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000.