Opioid addiction study to begin work in Ohio communities with experts from six universities including OHIO

As part of a federal research study to dramatically reduce opioid overdose deaths, a coalition, including Ohio University, will begin assisting Ohio counties with prevention, treatment and recovery programs before the end of the year.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the HEALing Communities Study, which aims to reduce overdose deaths by 40 percent over three years, will begin December in these Ohio communities and three other states that are participating in the study. The study will begin in December for the first wave of interventions or December 2021 for the second wave. The study will compare results between these communities:

• The 10 counties in the first wave are: Ashtabula, Athens, Cuyahoga, Darke, Greene, Guernsey, Hamilton, Lucas, Morrow and Scioto.
• The nine counties in the second wave are: Allen, Brown, Franklin, Huron, Jefferson, Ross, Stark, Williams and Wyandot.

“We are very eager to begin this coordinated, collective approach to positively impact Ohio communities that have been negatively affected by the opioid crisis,” said Tracy Plouck, an executive in residence in OHIO’s College of Health Sciences and Professions.

In April, the NIH awarded a $65.9 million grant to Ohio State to lead a consortium of academic, state and community partners on the Ohio portion of the study. The study involves 19 counties across Ohio, including Athens, and the state’s RecoveryOhio initiative and brings together experts from Ohio State, OHIO, University of Cincinnati, Case Western Reserve University, University of Toledo and Wright State University.

Throughout the project, all participating communities will continue to get all the other treatment and prevention resources and services that they would otherwise receive. All participating communities are at the leading edge of an unprecedented, life-saving national initiative.

Between 2010 and 2016, 13,059 Ohioans died from opioid overdoses, according to a study done by the Ohio Alliance for Innovation in Population Health, an initiative formed by OHIO’s College of Health Sciences and Professions, and University of Toledo’s College of Health and Human Services.

“We need to work with individuals in these communities in order to fully comprehend the opioid crisis in their region and to realize potential solutions, and we are going to do just that,” said Dr. Randy Leite, dean of OHIO’s CHSP.