ROANOKE, Va. – A local organization just received a grant to aid in the fight against substance abuse.
The Roanoke Valley Collective Response was awarded $1.4 million and will use the money to develop a peer recovery network for substance abuse.
The award comes from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration and will support them in the development of the network over the next four years.
The proposed project will allow trained people who have struggled with substance abuse to work alongside first responders across the Roanoke Valley.
”Quite frankly, we’re asking law enforcement and EMTs to be mental health counselors, and that’s not their jobs,” the director of Roanoke Valley Collective Response Niles Comer said. “This grant is really here to lower to overdose mortality rate while simultaneously providing a service to law enforcement and first responders.”
The hope is that this new program will assist with reducing barriers to accessing treatment, along with introducing individuals into the spectrum of recovery.