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Missouri Health Centers Win Grant to Fight Opioid Addiction

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The Health and Resources Services Administration has awarded $3.9 million to twenty-four health centers in Missouri, according to a press release issued Friday. There are a total of twenty-nine health centers in Missouri. The grant is a part of the Access Increases for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (AIMS) awards.

The total amount was determined by Congress in the Omnibus Budget Act earlier this year.

The grant is a part of the HRSA's five point strategy to fight opioid abuse across the country. The strategy includes advancing better practices for pain management and improving access to treatment and recovery services.

According to the CDC, thirty-three thousand people died of an opioid overdose in the U.S. in 2015, the largest number of opioid overdose deaths recorded in a single year.

The list of Missouri health centers includes The Family Health Center of Boone County in Columbia and The Community Health Center for Central Missouri in Jefferson City. Both centers will each receive $175,500 in grant money.

“They had to indicate how they would use the funds when it comes to expanding services, expanding hours, hiring staff and how they would use funding to hire IT services,” HRSA’s Martin Kramer says on the process of picking mental health services to award grants.

In total, HRSA awarded $200 million to 1,178 health centers and 13 rural health organizations in each state along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. This will be the only grant HRSA will award for the fiscal year.