From 1999 to 2017, opioid overdose deaths in Michigan increased 17-fold. In 2018, the total overdose death rate decreased while the overdose death rate among Black Michigan residents increased by 15 percent. In 2019, Governor Gretchen Whitmer called the opioid epidemic “the greatest health crisis of our lifetimes,” and the State of Michigan subsequently set a goal to cut opioid overdose deaths by half in five years.

The Michigan Opioid Partnership (MOP) is a public-private collaborative, including the State of Michigan and key philanthropic organizations, who share the goal of decreasing Michigan opioid overdoses and deaths. The MOP is led by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and leverages the Foundation’s longstanding relationships and extensive knowledge of funding gaps to address Michigan’s opioid crisis.

In 2019, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and several leading health foundation’s pooled resources, and the MOP announced a multi-million-dollar effort to respond to the overdose crisis. To date, the MOP has granted over $6 million with majority of the funds going directly to community partners. Funding has supported hospitals, county jails, community foundations, and nonprofits to increase harm reduction, post overdose rapid response, and treatment services. A primary focus has been on increasing access to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and transforming the patient experience in two critical care access points – hospitals and jails. Among other successes, it has provided grant support and technical assistance to establish MOUD programs in over half of the state’s emergency departments.

The MOP prioritizes multi-sector collaboration and leans on the expertise of stakeholders, specialists, and leaders in the health care ecosystem to address misinformation and stigma, provide funding and technical assistance, and evaluate program impact. Organizations and funders in other states may find inspiration in the MOP’s structure and journey as they look to tackle the opioid crisis and consider strategies with opioid settlement dollars.

During this session, you will hear from key partners in this work, including the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. The Community Foundation oversees the MOP's strategy and direction while working closely with the other funders and the State of Michigan. They will share details on how community foundations can encourage and lead multi-sector collaboration in statewide responses to the opioid crisis. They will also dive deep into one specific, successful initiative of the MOP as an example of what this type of partnership can accomplish. The Emergency Department Medication for Opioid Use Disorder Initiative is an important example of the impact philanthropy can have on public health issues when open to non-traditional roles, and its success is due to the unique partnerships the MOP cultivated, both locally and nationally, with key stakeholders and leaders in the health care ecosystem.

From 1999 to 2017, opioid overdose deaths in Michigan increased 17-fold. In 2018, the total overdose death rate decreased while the overdose death rate among Black Michigan residents increased by 15 percent. In 2019, Governor Gretchen Whitmer called the opioid epidemic “the greatest health crisis of our lifetimes,” and the State of Michigan subsequently set a goal to cut opioid overdose deaths by half in five years.

The Michigan Opioid Partnership (MOP) is a public-private collaborative, including the State of Michigan and key philanthropic organizations, who share the goal of decreasing Michigan opioid overdoses and deaths. The MOP is led by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and leverages the Foundation’s longstanding relationships and extensive knowledge of funding gaps to address Michigan’s opioid crisis.

In 2019, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and several leading health foundation’s pooled resources, and the MOP announced a multi-million-dollar effort to respond to the overdose crisis. To date, the MOP has granted over $6 million with majority of the funds going directly to community partners. Funding has supported hospitals, county jails, community foundations, and nonprofits to increase harm reduction, post overdose rapid response, and treatment services. A primary focus has been on increasing access to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and transforming the patient experience in two critical care access points – hospitals and jails. Among other successes, it has provided grant support and technical assistance to establish MOUD programs in over half of the state’s emergency departments.

The MOP prioritizes multi-sector collaboration and leans on the expertise of stakeholders, specialists, and leaders in the health care ecosystem to address misinformation and stigma, provide funding and technical assistance, and evaluate program impact. Organizations and funders in other states may find inspiration in the MOP’s structure and journey as they look to tackle the opioid crisis and consider strategies with opioid settlement dollars.

During this session, you will hear from key partners in this work, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation. The Foundation is the philanthropic affiliate of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network. They are dedicated to improving the health of Michigan residents by supporting health care research and innovative health programs. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation is a founding member of the MOP and was crucial to its development. They helped create a model for effective philanthropic public private partnerships to impact public health crises through the engagement of multiple funders, including state and corporate agencies. They will share how corporate philanthropy can play an important role in responding to the opioid crisis and why they should prioritize strategic funding partnerships when doing so.

From 1999 to 2017, opioid overdose deaths in Michigan increased 17-fold. In 2018, the total overdose death rate decreased while the overdose death rate among Black Michigan residents increased by 15 percent. In 2019, Governor Gretchen Whitmer called the opioid epidemic “the greatest health crisis of our lifetimes,” and the State of Michigan subsequently set a goal to cut opioid overdose deaths by half in five years.

The Michigan Opioid Partnership (MOP) is a public-private collaborative, including the State of Michigan and key philanthropic organizations, who share the goal of decreasing Michigan opioid overdoses and deaths. The MOP is led by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and leverages the Foundation’s longstanding relationships and extensive knowledge of funding gaps to address Michigan’s opioid crisis.

In 2019, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and several leading health foundation’s pooled resources, and the MOP announced a multi-million-dollar effort to respond to the overdose crisis. To date, the MOP has granted over $6 million with majority of the funds going directly to community partners. Funding has supported hospitals, county jails, community foundations, and nonprofits to increase harm reduction, post overdose rapid response, and treatment services. A primary focus has been on increasing access to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and transforming the patient experience in two critical care access points – hospitals and jails. Among other successes, it has provided grant support and technical assistance to establish MOUD programs in over half of the state’s emergency departments.

The MOP prioritizes multi-sector collaboration and leans on the expertise of stakeholders, specialists, and leaders in the health care ecosystem to address misinformation and stigma, provide funding and technical assistance, and evaluate program impact. Organizations and funders in other states may find inspiration in the MOP’s structure and journey as they look to tackle the opioid crisis and consider strategies with opioid settlement dollars.

During this session, you will hear from key partners in this work. You will hear from director of behavioral health and special projects at the Michigan Health Endowment Fund. The Health Fund is a philanthropic foundation that works to improve the health and wellness of Michigan residents while reducing healthcare costs with an emphasis on behavioral health grantmaking. Since its inception, the foundation has been a strong collaborative partner and project funder for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). MDHHS has provided significant support to the MOP through SAMHSA's State Opioid Response grant program. This speaker will discuss how and why MDHHS and the Health Fund joined the MOP, strategies to encourage collaboration among different philanthropic institutions, and how public-private partnerships can help efficiently accomplish state priorities.

From 1999 to 2017, opioid overdose deaths in Michigan increased 17-fold. In 2018, the total overdose death rate decreased while the overdose death rate among Black Michigan residents increased by 15 percent. In 2019, Governor Gretchen Whitmer called the opioid epidemic “the greatest health crisis of our lifetimes,” and the State of Michigan subsequently set a goal to cut opioid overdose deaths by half in five years.

The Michigan Opioid Partnership (MOP) is a public-private collaborative, including the State of Michigan and key philanthropic organizations, who share the goal of decreasing Michigan opioid overdoses and deaths. The MOP is led by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and leverages the Foundation’s longstanding relationships and extensive knowledge of funding gaps to address Michigan’s opioid crisis.

In 2019, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and several leading health foundation’s pooled resources, and the MOP announced a multi-million-dollar effort to respond to the overdose crisis. To date, the MOP has granted over $6 million with majority of the funds going directly to community partners. Funding has supported hospitals, county jails, community foundations, and nonprofits to increase harm reduction, post overdose rapid response, and treatment services. A primary focus has been on increasing access to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and transforming the patient experience in two critical care access points – hospitals and jails. Among other successes, it has provided grant support and technical assistance to establish MOUD programs in over half of the state’s emergency departments.

The MOP prioritizes multi-sector collaboration and leans on the expertise of stakeholders, specialists, and leaders in the health care ecosystem to address misinformation and stigma, provide funding and technical assistance, and evaluate program impact. Organizations and funders in other states may find inspiration in the MOP’s structure and journey as they look to tackle the opioid crisis and consider strategies with opioid settlement dollars.

During this session, you will hear from key partners in this work, including Vital Strategies. Vital Strategies is a global public health organization that partners with governments, providers, and communities to reduce overdoses. They are working to create widespread and equitable access to lifesaving medications for people who use drugs. Their partnership with the MOP included seeding funds to build a network of clinician champions and to develop an anti-racist and anti-stigma curriculum for hospital providers. Vital Strategies also supported the evaluation of MOUD implementation in the MOP hospitals cohort. They will describe how this work fits within the national landscape and why evaluation is important to the effort's success.

Many Americans do not have access to addiction treatment and recovery services for opioid use disorder (OUD) as a majority of counties do not have any physicians that prescribe medications for OUD (MOUD), the standard of care, as stigma against those with addiction is prevalent and many providers have not had clinical training on the science of addiction and evidence-based practices to treat OUD. To address this gap in addiction care, the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE), a national grantmaking foundation addressing the opioid and overdose crisis, and the Dogwood Health Trust, a local funder focused on improving the health and well-being of all people and communities in Western North Carolina (NC), partnered to support clinicians at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill and the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC), an academic health center based in Asheville, as they sought to expand access to MOUD treatment throughout NC. They are following the “hub-and-spoke” model developed in Vermont in which experts at hubs lend oversight and support to primary care providers at spokes to help them care for OUD patients. Since the project’s launch in March 2020, addiction medicine specialists at UNC Chapel Hill and MAHEC (the hubs) have been offering training, technical assistance, and clinical supports to 1,568 individuals at 13 federally qualified health centers and two health departments (the spokes) across 43 counties in the state. They’ve helped providers at the spoke clinics learn how to initiate and titrate buprenorphine (one of three FDA-approved MOUD), treat patients with HIV or hepatitis (conditions that can be common among patients with OUD), and offer perinatal support. With a focus on rural, low-income communities, MAHEC and UNC have also been able to leverage FORE and Dogwood funding to treat more uninsured individuals and expand mental health services. This session will present oral perspectives, followed by a panel discussion, from each member of the partnership: a grantee creating new statewide systems of care for OUD, a local funder on the ground who deeply understands the needs of their communities, and a national funder aiming to accelerate solutions to address the opioid and overdose crisis.

Many Americans do not have access to addiction treatment and recovery services for opioid use disorder (OUD) as a majority of counties do not have any physicians that prescribe medications for OUD (MOUD), the standard of care, as stigma against those with addiction is prevalent and many providers have not had clinical training on the science of addiction and evidence-based practices to treat OUD. To address this gap in addiction care, the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE), a national grantmaking foundation addressing the opioid and overdose crisis, and the Dogwood Health Trust, a local funder focused on improving the health and well-being of all people and communities in Western North Carolina (NC), partnered to support clinicians at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill and the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC), an academic health center based in Asheville, as they sought to expand access to MOUD treatment throughout NC. They are following the “hub-and-spoke” model developed in Vermont in which experts at hubs lend oversight and support to primary care providers at spokes to help them care for OUD patients. Since the project’s launch in March 2020, addiction medicine specialists at UNC Chapel Hill and MAHEC (the hubs) have been offering training, technical assistance, and clinical supports to 1,568 individuals at 13 federally qualified health centers and two health departments (the spokes) across 43 counties in the state. They’ve helped providers at the spoke clinics learn how to initiate and titrate buprenorphine (one of three FDA-approved MOUD), treat patients with HIV or hepatitis (conditions that can be common among patients with OUD), and offer perinatal support. With a focus on rural, low-income communities, MAHEC and UNC have also been able to leverage FORE and Dogwood funding to treat more uninsured individuals and expand mental health services. This session will present oral perspectives, followed by a panel discussion, from each member of the partnership: a grantee creating new statewide systems of care for OUD, a local funder on the ground who deeply understands the needs of their communities, and a national funder aiming to accelerate solutions to address the opioid and overdose crisis.

Many Americans do not have access to addiction treatment and recovery services for opioid use disorder (OUD) as a majority of counties do not have any physicians that prescribe medications for OUD (MOUD), the standard of care, as stigma against those with addiction is prevalent and many providers have not had clinical training on the science of addiction and evidence-based practices to treat OUD. To address this gap in addiction care, the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE), a national grantmaking foundation addressing the opioid and overdose crisis, and the Dogwood Health Trust, a local funder focused on improving the health and well-being of all people and communities in Western North Carolina (NC), partnered to support clinicians at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill and the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC), an academic health center based in Asheville, as they sought to expand access to MOUD treatment throughout NC. They are following the “hub-and-spoke” model developed in Vermont in which experts at hubs lend oversight and support to primary care providers at spokes to help them care for OUD patients. Since the project’s launch in March 2020, addiction medicine specialists at UNC Chapel Hill and MAHEC (the hubs) have been offering training, technical assistance, and clinical supports to 1,568 individuals at 13 federally qualified health centers and two health departments (the spokes) across 43 counties in the state. They’ve helped providers at the spoke clinics learn how to initiate and titrate buprenorphine (one of three FDA-approved MOUD), treat patients with HIV or hepatitis (conditions that can be common among patients with OUD), and offer perinatal support. With a focus on rural, low-income communities, MAHEC and UNC have also been able to leverage FORE and Dogwood funding to treat more uninsured individuals and expand mental health services. This session will present oral perspectives, followed by a panel discussion, from each member of the partnership: a grantee creating new statewide systems of care for OUD, a local funder on the ground who deeply understands the needs of their communities, and a national funder aiming to accelerate solutions to address the opioid and overdose crisis.