The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) has received a three-year $838,000 grant to improve accessibility to treatment services for substance use disorders for rural adult Iowans. The grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will allow rural residents access to treatment plans, group therapy tools, treatment satisfaction tools and live chat with counselors in real time over the Internet. It will also allow both clients and family members access to a library of information related to substance abuse education, treatment, and recovery.
“The goal of the Iowa Recovery Health Information Technology (IRHIT) grant is to not only increase the number of rural adults who are served by intensive outpatient treatment, but to also improve intensive outpatient treatment retention rates,” said IDPH Program Director Lonnie Cleland. “The IRHIT grant is expected to serve a minimum of 1,970 clients in the first year, and 1,500 in each of the two succeeding years.”
The IRHIT project will be implemented at 23 IDPH-funded treatment agencies over three years. Spreading the project across all IDPH-funded agencies will provide a more broad and comprehensive approach to substance abuse services for rural clients while also increasing Iowa’s capacity to serve them.
To learn more about IDPH’s prevention, treatment and recovery programs for substance use disorders, visit www.idph.state.ia.us/bh/substance_abuse.asp.
