How $500,000 will help treat opioid addiction at the Centre County Correctional Facility

A $500,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency will help treat opioid addiction in the Centre County Correctional Facility.

The Centre County Commissioners unanimously approved accepting the federal State Opioid Response funds on Thursday. The funds will support medicated assisted treatment in the Centre County Correctional Facility. Medicated assisted treatment is an evidence based program and is recognized at both the federal and state level as an effective means to address the opioid crisis, Catherine Arbogast, county drug and alcohol administrator, said.

The grant is through Sept. 29, 2024 and will be used for the medications, doctors appointments related to the program, counseling services for those in the program, and to assist with the correctional facility’s cost, Karri Hull, director of criminal justice planning, said during the meeting. Correctional officers will transport the participants to some of the appointments at the treatment facilities to ensure there’s a continuity of care, she said.

“So when the individual is released from the correctional facility, they can continue those services in our community, they’ve already established relationships,” Hull said. Before people leave the jail, they’ll have their next appointment made for them as well, Glenn Irwin, interim warden of the correctional facility, said. They can also connect them with Medicaid, which can pick up the cost once they return to their public lives, Arbogast said.

Irwin said they have some initial interest in the program, and they hope to have better participation and see better results than what the facility saw with the Vivitrol program, which treats alcohol dependence and prevents relapse to opioid dependence.

“Hopefully we’ll see some better results and they’ll get the true meaning because with Vivitrol, there was not a required counseling piece. With (this), there is required counseling to go along with it. So hopefully the two of those will help fight the addiction,” Irwin said.

The medication is injectable, so it lasts for 30 days and avoids diversion, Irwin said.

The county is taking a “multi-pronged approach” to this, Arbogast said. The grant gives them an opportunity to help those coming through the corrections facility receive services, she said. The county also received state opioid response funds, so those who are managing an opioid or stimulant addiction can contact the Drug and Alcohol office directly to seek and access services outside of the corrections system.

“The other great approach is we’re finding that individuals are coming into corrections who are already on a regiment of medication assisted treatment, and in the past, they have to stop because they’ve been incarcerated. This grant will allow them to continue a prescribed medication protocol while they’re incarcerated, and they don’t have to stop what has already been found to be successful,” Arbogast said. “And so this provides a level of protection for the county and for the correctional facility because they are able to continue those medications.”

That’s the starting point for the county, she said, but they hope to also be able to start individuals on this protocol, so they can continue when they are released.