2025-758-E-Health Dept-UNC-CH-Services and support programs that serve persons with Opioid Use Disorder

Browse Search

program expansion, management of community partnerships, and direct staffing of supply distribution shifts. This funding will let us meet organizational goals by increasing supply distribution and starting new initiatives as detailed below. Our grant through the Orange County Opioid Settlement Fund is currently our only source of funding. Challenges for our program beyond the current project cycle include maintaining our Program Navigator role, which is currently a temporary position pending grant funding. However, we will work with our program navigator for whatever time we can fund this position to create streamlined workflows that are more sustainable for a student-run organization. Streamlining processes for inventory, supply ordering, maintaining records, and interfacing with other programs will enable us to continue to grow and maintain access to necessary safer use supplies for residents of Orange County. Another challenge for our program is that we currently receive nasal Naloxone for free via the Addiction Medicine program at UNC but are not guaranteed to continue receiving this resource indefinitely. To address this, we developed our budget such that if needed we can shift spending to be able to purchase Naloxone. We would also explore other sources of free or reduced cost Naloxone via connections with other SSPs. For the initiatives below, three student co-directors and the program navigator will share responsibility for oversight and completion of all tasks, with our student volunteer base providing staffing for routine SSP activities. Upcoming initiatives for new funding period: 1. Open a new SHAC SSP location to increase SSP access: With our program navigator available to staff shifts weekly and the significant growth of our volunteer base, our bandwidth for shift staffing has increased greatly. We are actively seeking an additional location in Chapel Hill to host a third weekly distribution shift. This location will be selected to complement our weekly shift locations in Chapel Hill and Carrboro and our supply site at Hillsborough Pharmacy and serve a population to whom these locations are not easily accessible. We are utilizing participant feedback and EMS data on overdose locations to select this site. An additional distribution shift per week in a visible and easily accessible location within Orange County will enhance the quantity of safe injection supplies and Naloxone we can distribute. We will seek to start shifts at our new site at the start of the Fall undergraduate semester in August 2025. 2. Initiate SHAC SSP material distribution within the UNC Emergency Department (ED): We are in the process of incorporating information on the SHAC SSP into discharge materials for patients admitted to the UNC ED with substance use-related chief complaints or those who discuss substance use with their provider. Through discussions with ED leadership, it became apparent that the current guidance materials for treatment of SUD are out of date and our program is assisting in revision of these materials. Our program will also be giving a presentation to the UNC Emergency Medicine Residency Program to educate medical residents on SUD treatment, harm reduction, and SSPs. This will benefit patients in our community by streamlining the process with the UNC ED for patients to access lifesaving resources through our program. This will represent a significant improvement in how patients who use opioids are treated within the UNC Healthcare system and open a line of dialogue so we may continue to improve healthcare providers’ knowledge and awareness as the opioid crisis evolves. The presentation will occur in Summer 2025 and guidance materials updated throughout Fall 2025, with this initiative led by the program co-directors in conjunction with medical student volunteers. 3. Establish Emergency Use Naloxone Boxes: We plan to expand access to free naloxone in Docusign Envelope ID: 29556FD2-008F-43BA-A984-596F90EB929E