University of Arizona | Wikimedia Commons
University of Arizona | Wikimedia Commons
A grant was given to the University of Arizona for $1.47 million to work alongside the Unified Medication-Assisted Treatment Targeted Engagement Response project, or U-MATTER, along with the Tucson Police Department, CODAC Health, Recovery & Wellness Inc., and Pima County, in the fight against opioids.
The idea is to help those suffering go through treatment rather than prison.
Josephine Korchmaros, the director of UA’s Southwest Institute for Research on Women, mentioned that the grant is a program that is set to have two purposes. One of the main purposes is to take the partners in the program, get them to work together, and find different ways to improve the program. The main purpose is to see how the program is impacting those involved in the treatment.
Gov. Doug Ducey declared a state of emergency in June 2017, after the overdose cases skyrocketed in 2016, from the opioid epidemic. Since the program started, 1,000 participants have avoided incarceration and successfully completed the program. The state of emergency was lifted in 2018.
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