Governor Gretchen Whitmer has announced that $1.3 million in grants will go to hospitals to help create better systems for treating people with opioid addiction.
Whitmer says opioid addiction is a large and growing problem. She says one reason is that people end up in emergency rooms after they overdose. But she says they are often released without a followup plan.
She says that means many of the same people make repeat trips to the hospital for emergency care without treating their addiction.
”Which is expensive, but most importantly, it’s inhumane not to give people the support that they so desperately need,” she says. “This is not an epidemic that is constrained by race, or geography, or socio-economic status, or age for that matter, and that is why it’s important that we build a partnership like this. It’s a good start.”
The first grants will go to hospitals in Detroit and northern Michigan, with more going to other health care centers if the programs are successful.
