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.

Collaboratives in Beaufort County and the surrounding area aim to address addiction by collecting and analyzing data, offering programs such as medication assisted treatment, and raising awareness. This opportunity is for Beaufort County, in connection with the surrounding region, to implement evidence-informed and evidence-based interventions to address substance misuse.

Our mission is to serve financially vulnerable residents 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.