The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) today announced more than $20.8 million in funding has been awarded to nine substance use disorder programs to expand residential treatment services across West Virginia. The funding is supported by the Ryan Brown Addiction Prevention and Recovery Fund as part of a comprehensive statewide plan to combat the opioid epidemic.
“As West Virginia fights this battle against addiction, these projects will allow for continued expansion of treatment beds and improved resources across the state,” said DHHR Cabinet Secretary Bill J. Crouch. “We are pleased to support these grantees as they work to address the substance use epidemic on a community level.”
The Ryan Brown Addiction Prevention and Recovery Fund, also known as House Bill 2428, was passed by the West Virginia Legislature during the 2017 regular legislative session. This legislation mandates that DHHR identify need and allocate additional treatment beds in the state to be operated by the private sector. These beds are intended to provide substance use disorder treatment services in existing or newly constructed facilities.
The following grant recipients were selected by DHHR’s Office of Drug Control Policy based on a scoring procedure measuring public health indicators by region. A total of 23 applications were received.
- Region 1: Living Free Ohio Valley; Wheeling: $3,000,000; provide a recovery program focused on underserved female populations.
- Region 2: Mountaineer Behavioral Health, PLLC; Martinsburg: $3,000,000; provide both residential addiction treatment plus step-down continuing outpatient care using a long-term treatment model.
- Region 3: St. Joseph Recovery Center, LLC; Parkersburg: $3,000,000; provide outreach and offer services to the region’s counties hit hardest by substance use: Boone, Jackson, McDowell, Mingo, Roane and Wyoming.
- Region 3: Westbrook Health Services, Inc.; Parkersburg: $1,000,000; provide a drug and alcohol-free residential, long-term treatment environment for recovering consumers while they build the life skills necessary to reintegrate back into the community.
- Region 4: Valley HealthCare System, Inc.; Morgantown: $3,000,000; expand number of short-term treatment beds and create long-term beds.
- Region 4: West Virginia University (WVU) Research Corporation; Morgantown: $1,000,000; open a residential treatment facility as part of Chestnut Ridge Center and WVU Medicine.
- Region 5: Marshall University Physicians and Surgeons, Inc.; Huntington: $2,825,406; provide trauma-informed residential treatment services for pregnant and post-partum women through the Marshall Recovery Center for Families.
- Region 5: WestCare West Virginia, Inc.; Culloden: $1,000,000; develop a new substance use disorder treatment facility.
- Region 6: Southern West Virginia Treatment thru Recovery Continuum, a collaboration between FMRS Health Systems, Seneca Health Services, and Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center; Beckley: $2,999,927; expand the availability of substance use disorder treatment beds, partner with existing programs and improve the occupancy rate of available beds in the region.
“As this fight is far from over, West Virginia plans to continue to explore additional funding sources from the federal government to complement these projects,” Crouch added. “We anticipate the additional treatment beds added to be sustained by DHHR’s Medicaid Substance Use Disorder waiver, which will cover the long-term cost of treatment for Medicaid enrollees.”