Opioid aid fund reaches $31M

Torrington among cities to receive federal grant

The state is getting another $3.6 million — in addition to nearly $27 million announced last week — in federal funds to combat the opioid epidemic.

The state Department of Public Health will receive the latest funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support its prevention efforts and work of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The funds bring the total of federal dollars recently invested in Connecticut’s fight against opioid addiction to just under $31 million.

Last week, it was announced the state would receive $22 million over the next two years from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to help increase the number of emergency departments with access to on-call recovery coaches, support the state Department of Correction with treatment and prevention services and to purchase doses of Narcan, a medication known to reverse opioid overdoses.

Another $4.8 million is being distributed to health centers in 13 cities across the state, including Danbury, New Haven, Bridgeport, Torrington, Greenwich and Norwalk.

The Community Health Center in Middletown will receive $510,500; New Haven’s Cornell Scott Hill Health Corp. will get $488,750; Fair Haven Community Health Clinic, also in New Haven, will be awarded $327,750 and Community Health and Wellness Center of Greater Torrington will get $287,500.

The number of overdoses in the state has more than doubled in the past six years, with about 1,038 deaths reported during 2017.

Maria Coutant Skinner, executive director of Torrington’s McCall Center, met with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., this month to discuss the opioid crisis and programs needing additional funding.

“Once the state agencies receive this funding from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency, it will be distributed to communities, and how hard they’ve been hit decides how much funding those communities will receive,” Coutant Skinner said. “Unfortunately we’re on the list of

the hardest hit.”

Coutant Skinner said when she and other service providers learned they might receive more funding from the federal government, they met at Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown and discussed “where we seed the needs continuing.”

“We told members of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services where we believe there are gaps in the system,” she said. “I would also expect some of this money to go to the courts, to find out what we are doing to control the fentanyl coming into our state.”

The McCall Center is very busy, and “I only think that’s a good thing,” Coutant

Skinner said. “We know the problem is out there, and the fact that we’re busy means people are actually accessing the resources and getting the help they need. This is an issue that cuts across all political parties and touches every strata of our society. When there’s actually dollars coming it, it heartens me, because it places value on the people we’re trying to help. As a community provider, we’re just very grateful.”

The number of overdoses in the state has more than doubled in the past six years, with about 1,038 deaths reported during 2017. That’s up significantly from 568 deaths reported in 2014.