Washington County jail receives grant for opioid abuse treatment
Washington County jail is one of nine county lockups across Pennsylvania receiving a grant to support the Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) Program to help inmates addicted to opioids, it was announced Monday.
Washington is receiving $136,229. Altogether, $1.2 million is being divided between nine counties. Other counties in the Pittsburgh region receiving the grants are Armstrong and Lawrence counties. The grant dollars are part of a larger $55 million federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) grant secured by the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf to bolster the commonwealth’s response to the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic.
“Implementing the evidence-based treatments such as MAT in criminal justice settings is an overarching goal for the PA Department of Corrections,” Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said in a news release. “However, the rubber really meets the road at the county level, and I want to credit these counties for stepping up to impact individuals by providing this important treatment in their jails.”
Over the course of the funding, officials in Washington County and the eight other counties will be invited to participate in a state-of-the-art learning collaborative with both in-person and webinar components organized on a monthly basis. Officials will explore topics like cognitive behavioral therapy and referral planning.