March 27, 2019
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Harrisburg, PA – Governor Tom Wolf announced today that the departments of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) and Human Services (DHS) have awarded $15 million in federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grants for a new program to provide case management and housing support services for Pennsylvanians with an opioid use disorder (OUD). The pilot programs will support innovative practices that increase access to support services for individuals with OUD, keep people engaged in treatment and recovery, and help prevent overdose-related deaths.

“With these grant announcements we are taking an important step in removing a barrier to recovery and independence for those suffering from opioid use disorder,” Gov. Wolf said. “As we continue to battle this health crisis, being able to address housing as a means to get people into treatment and on the road to recovery is a key component.”

First announced in October, the program will direct the $15 million through 16 grant agreements that will assist urban and rural counties throughout the commonwealth. The pilot programs will assist individuals as they become and remain engaged in evidence-based treatment programs and will provide individuals with support services such as pre-tenancy and tenancy education services to maintain stable housing.

The counties selected for pilot programs under the request for applications were identified via a formula that equally considered the rate of individuals diagnosed with a substance use disorder (SUD) and rate of overdose-related deaths in a county. The selected grant recipient are:

“We know that each individual seeking treatment is just that – an individual,” said DDAP Secretary Jennifer Smith. “They each have different situations and circumstances hindering their recovery. In order to truly combat this crisis, we must build capacity to support individuals by providing necessary, supportive wrap around services like stable housing and case management.”

“The conditions in which a person lives play a substantial role in a person’s health. When a person experiences homelessness in addition to a substance use disorder, the lack of a secure home is often a barrier to staying engaged with treatment and recovery, if they are able to access treatment at all,” said DHS Secretary Teresa Miller. “These programs will soon assist people with housing access and stability and will help more people stay engaged in treatment and reach recovery.”

SAMHSA has distinguished four major dimensions that support a life in recovery: Health, Home, Purpose, and Community. This project aims to support two components of the dimensions – Home and Purpose. By giving an individual a stable, safe place to focus on their recovery, paired with the independence and self-worth that housing provides, an individual’s overall health and wellbeing is greatly improved.

Housing instability, combined with unmet basic needs, makes the road to recovery and independence extremely challenging. According to national data, about one in five people experiencing homelessness has a chronic substance use disorder. This aligns with information gathered from Pennsylvania’s 45 state-sponsored OUD Centers of Excellence, a majority of which identify housing as a major barrier for their clients.

The grants are made possible by the $55.9 million SAMHSA grant secured to bolster the state’s response to the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic. Additional initiatives included in the grant are focused on expanding services to pregnant women and veterans affected by OUD, developing the treatment and recovery workforce, and strengthening criminal justice and law enforcement initiatives with a focus on reentrant supports.

Find more information on the state’s efforts to battle the opioid crisis here.

MEDIA CONTACT:    J.J. Abbott, 717-783-1116

March 26, 2019

Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Health achieved national public health accreditation on Monday, demonstrating the department’s continued commitment to protecting and improving the health and safety of Pennsylvanians.

“This is a very important milestone in our continued efforts to promote healthy lifestyles, prevent injury and disease and to assure the safe delivery of quality health care to Pennsylvanians,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. “Each day, we are working to address health issues in a wide range of areas, including ensuring Pennsylvania has healthy moms and healthy kids, protecting seniors in nursing homes and addressing the opioid crisis. We are committed to working toward a healthy Pennsylvania.”

There are 34 states that have achieved their accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board since the national accreditation program launched in 2011 with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. More than 240 health departments nationwide have achieved the prestigious designation, including Allegheny County, Erie County, the Bethlehem Health Bureau and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health in Pennsylvania.

Accreditation also satisfies a goal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which identified accreditation as a key strategy for strengthening our nation’s public health infrastructure. A strong public health infrastructure is more important than ever in the constantly changing local, national and global health environment.

The department began preparing for this step several years ago. Before submitting its application, the department completed several crucial steps, including finalizing the state’s health improvement plan and its organizational strategic plan, addressing challenges identified in a self-assessment and strategy maps for health reform and health equity.

“Public health is an ever-changing landscape, with potential threats including Ebola, pandemic influenza and the misinformation regarding vaccinations,” Secretary Levine said. “We are committed to preparing for each of these concerns and also being aware of new potential issues that could affect the health of Pennsylvanians each day.”

For more information on the Department and the work being done to ensure the health of Pennsylvanians, visit www.health.pa.gov or follow us on FacebookOpens In A New Window and TwitterOpens In A New Window.

MEDIA CONTACT: Nate Wardle, 717-787-1783 or ra-dhpressoffice@pa.gov

CDC: Tracking Transmission of HIV.   On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released their latest report on rates of HIV transmission in the United States.  Data for sexual and needle-sharing behaviors were obtained fromNational HIV Behavioral Surveillance, a system of research on behaviors of three populations at increased risk for HIV: 1) gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men; 2) persons who inject drugs; and 3) heterosexuals at increased risk of infection.  These data for behavioral factors in 2016 were compared to data for newly diagnosed cases from the National HIV Surveillance System.  The analysis found that, of the 38,700 new infections diagnosed in 2016, approximately 80% of new HIV transmissions were from persons who did not know they had HIV infection, or who had received diagnosis but were not receiving care.  The report concludes that decreasing the rate of transmission relies on increasing the rate of testing and treating those who are HIV-positive with newer drugs proven to be effective at suppressing the virus.  Last year, the CDC identified 220 mostly rural counties experiencing or at-risk of significant increases of infection.  See the Approaching Deadlines section below for current funding opportunities related to the effort of reducing HIV transmission.

2019 County Health Rankings.  Released on Tuesday of this week, the 2019 ranking of health for nearly every county in the nation reminds us that health outcomes are heavily influenced by where we live.  This year’s analysis focuses specifically on homes and the way they shape the health of individuals, families and communities.  Among the key findings is evidence showing that severe housing cost burden has decreased in large urban areas since the end of the real estate crisis that ended in 2010.  In that same period of time, however, nearly half of all rural counties experienced an increase in severe housing costs.

Ongoing Work on Rural Health Issues at the CDC.  In the latest edition of The Rural Monitor, Senior Policy Analyst Diane Hall answers questions about the work on rural health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). What started as a series in 2017 for their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) has continued with ongoing work with representation from each of the CDC’s centers ensuring that rural communities are included in funding opportunities and projects.  The MMWR series oriented the public and policymakers to the rural specifics on topics such as drug overdose deaths, leading causes of death, suicide trends, and cancer incidence and deaths.

Mental Health in Rural Communities Toolkit.  The newest resource from the Rural Health Information Hub compiles evidence-based and promising models to support organizations implementing mental health programs in rural communities across the United States, with a primary focus on adult mental health.

Dying Too Soon: County-level Disparities in Premature Death by Rurality, Race, and Ethnicity.  In this brief from the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center researchers found that the highest rates of premature death were observed in rural counties where a majority of residents were non-Hispanic Black or American Indian/Alaskan Native.

CMS Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool Improved with Medicaid and Rural Data.

Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an expanded version of its tool that tracks rates of opioid prescribing over time and across regions to help inform prevention and treatment efforts.   For the first time since the Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool launched in 2015, the tool allows geographic comparisons of Medicare Part D opioid prescribing rates for urban and rural communities.  See the Learning Events section below for a CMS Rural Health Open Door Forum, taking place today, that will explain what’s new for rural stakeholders.

By Beth Blevins

Human trafficking doesn’t just happen in big cities in the United States—it happens in rural areas as well. Lisa Davis, Director of the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health (PORH), is working to bring more attention to this issue.

Davis said her interest in human trafficking came unexpectedly, at a presentation given at a Pennsylvania Critical Access Hospital Consortium meeting in November 2017. It was unclear if the topic resonated with the hospital leadership in the audience, she said. “But hospital CEOs came up to me after the meeting and told me they never knew that human trafficking was an issue in rural Pennsylvania or was something they should think about.”

Davis added, “It was clear that their facilities needed to be prepared to identify potential victims and to have systems in place to refer them for the services they would need.”

The administrators then asked if PORH could develop training programs for them. “PORH staff made a deliberate choice to train rural providers on the threat of human trafficking,” Davis said. “We know that we can be a resource for rural hospitals and other providers.”

Since the beginning of 2018, PORH has worked to address the issue in rural Pennsylvania. As a first step, a statewide committee of government, academic, community, and hospital representatives was organized. In November 2018, the group launched the Rural Human Trafficking Initiative with an introductory webinar targeting small rural hospitals, community-based organizations, and others interested in serving potential victims.

Since then, Davis said, “We continue to keep the hospitals informed—we’ve gotten a lot of interest from them.”

Davis also is reaching beyond Pennsylvania to raise awareness of rural human trafficking in other states. She gave a presentation in October 2018 at the Annual Meeting of the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH) in Cheyenne, Wyoming. “It was the first time anyone had talked about that topic at NOSORH,” Davis said.

“I wanted to have NOSORH begin to think about how State Offices of Rural Health (SORHs) could address human trafficking with the Critical Access Hospitals, Rural Health Clinics, and Federally Qualified Health Clinics with which they work,” she said.

This summer, PORH and its partners will host a summit on rural human trafficking (June 26-27) in State College, Pennsylvania. “We are beginning to put in place some of the training programs that the hospitals can implement to identify point persons in their facilities, and the programs and connections that they need to address human trafficking,” Davis said.

Davis observed, “Human trafficking is often thought of as sexual exploitation but it’s also labor exploitation, which can occur essentially anywhere: in restaurants, domestic service, agricultural production, and more.”

Human trafficking is of special concern in Pennsylvania, Davis said, “because we are a state with two main cities and a number of interstate systems that traverse rural areas. With lots of travel routes into, out of, and through the state, it’s much easier to transport victims from one place to another.” According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, there were 127 cases of human trafficking in Pennsylvania in 2018, with the majority of those cases sex trafficking.

As PORH staff became more informed about human trafficking, Davis said, they found a large network of individuals and organizations that have been focusing on the issue for a long time.

“We’ve made excellent contacts,” she said. “We’ve connected with Villanova University’s Commercial Sexual Exploitation Institute. We’ve been learning about coordinated efforts between the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to address human trafficking. And we’re working with the Region III offices of HHS and HRSA, which have an intergovernmental task force focused on human trafficking.”

However, she noted, “PORH is still very early in the learning stage and is committed to becoming a trusted resource for rural health care providers.”

Davis concluded, “Every story is heartbreaking and if we can make a difference in even one life, this effort will be well worth it.”

If you see someone who you think might be a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 (text to: 233733).