The U.S. Department of Labor has announced an award of $2.8M to provide employment and training services to deal with the opioid crisis in Ohio.
The money would be allotted to the National Dislocated Worker Grant that funds the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which employs people for the job to oversee the effects of the opioid crisis. The job positions include hospital support staff and peer recovery coaches who address the opioid addiction among newborn babies and increased drug-related admissions. It also provides social service aids to children placed in foster care due to parental substance abuse.
The opioid crisis has been a serious health emergency in Ohio as it has been recording a higher rate of newborns suffering from opioid abuse. Ohio reported 3,237 deaths from opioid-related overdoses in 2018 alone.
The Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis as a health emergency in October 2017. As per the estimates provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ohio recorded 49,860 opioid overdose deaths, which account for 70.6 percent of all drug overdose deaths.
Ohio has also received the award previously in May 2019 under a National Health Emergency Dislocated Worker Grant to continue the services. The project would be executed by the same 20 workforce development areas which provided services under the award offered earlier.
