Last month, the EMPOWERED program at Roseman University College of Medicine was awarded two grants to support its ongoing programs to help pregnant and post-partum individuals in their recovery from opioid and substance use disorders.
EMPOWERED received a two-year grant of $230,360 per year through the Fund for a Resilient Nevada, established in 2021 to administer the State’s portion of opioid litigation recoveries. EMPOWERED RISE (Recovery, Integration, Support, and Empowerment), funded through the Fund for a Resilient Nevada, will provide southern Nevada clients with enhanced psychoeducation and tailored peer and social supports, which provide targeted interventions and assistance matching each client’s individual needs and where they are in their journey of recovery and progress.
The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services also announced that Nevada was one of six states to receive a federal competitive grant for a pilot program to treat pregnant and postpartum women with a primary diagnosis of substance use disorder. As part of the pilot program, EMPOWERED will receive $894,497 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to expand its programming to Northern Nevada to improve health outcomes and develop sustainability in Nevada’s rural areas.
“EMPOWERED has had a profound impact on the lives of hundreds of Southern Nevadans to support their recovery and stabilization, and to become resilient,” said Andria Peterson, PharmD, EMPOWERED’s executive director and co-founder. “With this grant, the program will expand to Reno and Carson City, as well as surrounding communities, to reach more individuals in need. This is critical as drug overdose remains the leading cause of maternal mortality (death while pregnant or up to one year after giving birth) in Nevada according to the Nevada Maternal Mortality and Severe Maternal Morbidity Report.”
Established in 2018, EMPOWERED is a recovery-oriented, family-based program that combines medication for opioid use disorder with comprehensive, wraparound services to manage educational and therapeutic goals with peer support, individual and group therapy, and care navigation to promote health and abiding recovery. The program currently serves 112 active clients in Southern Nevada.