Pennsylvania Governor, Tom Wolf announced on Monday that the state has received $26.5 million from the federal government to fight the opioid epidemic.

"The scourge that is the heroin and opioid abuse must be attacked and this significant influx of federal dollars will help us in our fight," he said.

The grant will help the state:

-It will provide clinically appropriate treatment services to 6,000 individuals, who are uninsured or underinsured.

-To expand treatment capacity for Medication Assisted Treatment for the opioid use disorder (OUD).

-To expand treatment capacity for underserved populations by targeting workforce development and cultural competency training.

-It will improve quality of prescribing practices through prescriber education.

-It will increase community awareness of OUD issues and resources through public awareness activities.

-To expand implementation of warm hand-off referral practices to increase the number of patients transferred directly from the emergency department to substance use treatment.

-It will increase the number of youth receiving evidence-based prevention and life skills education programs.

-It will improve identification and referral of students for assessment and treatment by providing training to school personnel.

-To expand Pennsylvania's integration of its Prescription Drug Monitoring Program data at the point-of-care, promoting ease-of-use of this data in clinical decision-making.

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