Kansas receives $17 million to address opioid crisis

TOPEKA – Governor Laura Kelly today announced that the State of Kansas and the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas (KTIK) have together received $17.2 million in federal grant funding to address the opioid crisis. The funding will be used to increase access to treatment for substance use disorders, remove barriers to public health interventions like naloxone, and expand access to recovery support services.

The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) has received more than $16.7 million, and the KTIK has received $500,000 in federal grant funding to address the opioid crisis and support individuals in recovery.

The funding, provided through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), will support states, tribal lands, and territories’ opioid response efforts. The grants are part of National Recovery Month and SAMHSA’s State Opioid Response (SOR) and Tribal Opioid Response (TOR) grant programs.

For KDADS, this grant will provide access to medication-assisted treatment to reduce overdose deaths for Kansans with opioid use disorder or stimulant use disorder. Strategies and interventions will focus on evidence-based prevention, treatment, and recovery support services for the illicit use of prescription opioids, heroin, fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, and psychostimulants.

The funding will also allow Kansas to increase investments in overdose education, peer support specialists in emergency departments, and allow states to invest in other strategies that will help save lives in hard-hit communities.

“Our prevention and addiction teams recognize the dangers of opioids in our cities and rural areas and the damaging impact they have on so many lives,” said KDADS Secretary Laura Howard.

KTIK will develop a holistic TOR program, KTIK Return to Community (R2C), that includes prevention; screening; treatment; and peer-led recovery for opioid, stimulant, and other substance use.