§16-5T-6. Community Overdose Response Demonstration Pilot Project.
(a) The Director of the Office of Drug Control Policy shall establish a Community Overdose Response Demonstration Pilot Project, to be continued for a period of four years, to develop model government programs to promote public health and general welfare through a comprehensive community-based response to drug overdoses in communities across West Virginia.
(b) The purpose of the demonstration pilot project is the development of community programs that will focus and use existing resources of government agencies to create outreach programs to educate concerned family and community members, including first responders, to recognize an opioid overdose, and to immediately respond with life-saving measures and quick response teams comprised of law enforcement, emergency medical personnel, and a trained opiate case manager to conduct an in-home visit within one week of an overdose.
(c) The objective of the demonstration pilot project is to improve public health by addressing drug overdoses through a comprehensive community development plan. The plan should serve as a model to improve public health and education through a comprehensive community-based response to drug overdoses across the state.
(d) Communities that experience a high frequency of drug overdoses, compared with national averages as determined by the Office of Drug Control Policy, are eligible for participation in the demonstration pilot project.
(e) The demonstration pilot project shall be developed and administered by the Office of Drug Control Policy to encourage state and local agencies and community groups to work together and coordinate government and community responses to drug overdoses, and identify new and existing funds, personnel, and other existing resources available for the demonstration pilot project. Demonstration projects may include:
(1) Outreach programs to educate concerned family and community members, including first responders, to recognize an opioid overdose and to immediately respond with life-saving measures. This outreach may include basic information, training in the proper and safe administration of Naloxone to reverse drug overdoses, and the distribution of Naloxone kits; and
(2) Quick response teams comprised of law enforcement, emergency medical personnel, and a case manager trained in substance use disorder to conduct an in-home visit within one week of an overdose. The quick response teams would work cooperatively to triage and assess overdose survivors and provide linkage to treatment and services for rehabilitation with the goal of reducing repeated overdoses.
(f) The demonstration project may receive funding and other committed resources from federal, state, or local government and community groups.
(g) A community desiring to participate in the demonstration project shall submit a plan to the director that provides for the following elements:
(1) Community participation;
(2) Development of a community action plan with measurable, achievable, realistic, time-phased objectives;
(3) Implementation of the community action plan; and
(4) Evaluation of results.
(h) By majority vote, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Substance Use Disorder Policy created pursuant to Executive Order 10-17 may select one or more communities from those that submit plans for participation in the demonstration pilot project.
(i) Commencing December 1, 2018, and each year thereafter, each participating community shall give a progress report to the director and commencing January 1, 2019, and each year thereafter, the director shall give a summary report of all the participating communities to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability as established in §16-29E-1 et seq. of this code, on progress made by the pilot demonstration project, including suggested legislation, necessary changes to the demonstration pilot project, and suggested expansion of the demonstration project.
(j) This section is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the state, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(k) The demonstration project terminates on July 1, 2022.
