NCUIH Submits Comments to IHS on a Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Opioids Grant Program

On Tuesday, September 3, NCUIH submitted comments to the Indian Health Service (IHS) on its Urban Confer regarding FY 2019 opioid funding for a Special Behavioral Health Pilot Program (SBHPP).  In the comments, NCUIH provided the following recommendations:

In the comments, NCUIH provided the following recommendations:

• The SBHPP objectives should be clearly stated and well-designed to address the opioid epidemic, and include sufficient flexibility
• The SBHPP must be flexible and allow creativity in program design in order to be most effective
• Adequate funding for UIOs to combat the opioid epidemic is key to advancing the goal of quality data collection and evaluation
• It is important that any effectiveness measures are not prescriptive and allow for flexibility because using a sole metric may work well in some areas but for a variety of reasons not be an adequate representation of success in others
• Sufficient data and appropriate evaluation metrics are important for the longevity of the program

The comments reiterated support for a SBHPP and the importance that UIOs be included in any such program design.