Michigan health centers are getting $3.4 million from the federal government to fight the ongoing opioid epidemic.
It’s part of a new federal push to get more people into treatment.
"All across rural and urban American, the opioid epidemic is one of the most pressing public health issues we face," says Kathleend Falk, regional director of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Humans Services. "We lose far too many of our fellow Americans to drug overdoses.”
Falk says in the six Great Lake states alone, more than 8,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2014.
In Michigan, the grants are going mostly to clinics in the Detroit, Flint and Grand Rapids areas.
They’ll be able to screen more patients, train opioid prescribers, and deliver more medication-assisted treatment, or MAT.
Those medications can reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms.
