In recent years, stakeholders in North Carolina have spent considerable time and energy crafting recommendations to confront the complex issues of behavioral health and substance use at the state level. A lack of treatment capacity, high uninsured rates in some sections of the population, and rising opioid overdose deaths prompted the creation of these plans.

Like many parts of the state, rural Healthy Places North Carolina communities are struggling to reduce rates of addiction to harmful substances and to decrease or eliminate overdose deaths.

Organizations and collaboratives in Beaufort county are addressing addiction by adopting new policies, collecting and analyzing data, offering programs such as medication assisted treatment and peer support, and raising awareness. This opportunity is for Beaufort county to continue coordinating coalitions, developing regional recommendations, raising awareness, and increasing the capacity of the most impacted communities to participate in system change efforts.

Our mission is to serve residents who are financially vulnerable and to close racial disparities in health care, so we are particularly interested in how communities are addressing the needs of Medicaid and uninsured patients.