Shaheen, Kuster Welcome $500K for Families Flourish Northeast to Combat Substance Use Disorder Epidemic in NH
**Funding comes from Congressionally Directed Spending request the lawmakers secured in the FY’22 government funding package**
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Annie Kuster (NH-02) applauded $500,000 officially awarded to Families Flourish Northeast, which they secured as a Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) request through the FY 22 government funding law.
This award will help Families Flourish Northeast establish a residential substance use treatment program for pregnant and parenting women and their children in Lebanon. This funding will help combat the substance use disorder crisis in the Upper Valley and beyond. In April, Shaheen and Kuster met with board members of Families Flourish Northeast and hospital administrators at the Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital to discuss the award they helped secure.
“I’m thrilled to see this $500,000 award I helped secure for Families Flourish Northeast is now delivered. We know the substance use disorder crisis worsened during the pandemic, so time is of the essence to help impacted families across the Granite State. This funding will expand access to treatment programs for parenting women and their children, providing a path for families to stay together during treatment and recovery,” said Shaheen. “Helping individuals affected by substance misuse and ensuring the next generation doesn’t succumb to addiction have always been important priorities for me, and I’m grateful for Congresswoman Kuster’s partnership in securing this grant. I hope this funding empowers Families Flourish Northeast to continue helping families heal and lead healthy lives.”
“Families Flourish Northeast provides essential tools for families and communities, I’m thrilled to see this substantial award I helped to secure is finally being delivered to help establish a residential substance use treatment program in Lebanon for pregnant women and mothers, as well as their children,” said Rep. Kuster. “Creating a safe place for mothers to access substance use treatment while remaining active parents to their children will help to keep Granite State families together and make recovery much more accessible. I was proud to work with Senator Shaheen to secure this $500,000 award to expand substance misuse treatment in the Upper Valley and surrounding New Hampshire communities, and I will continue working to address substance use in our state to ensure no one is left behind.”
As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Shaheen has fought to deliver resources to combat the substance use disorder crisis in New Hampshire. For example, the FY 2021 funding legislation provided $1.5 billion in State Opioid Response (SOR) grant funding, as well as the continuation of a 15 percent set-aside that Shaheen fought to secure in 2018 for hard-hit states like New Hampshire. Shaheen also included a key provision from the 2019 version of her legislation - the Turn the Tide Act - to provide flexibility for treatment providers to use State Opioid Response (SOR) grant dollars to help patients suffering from meth and cocaine dependency, in addition to opioid use disorders. Shaheen wrote the provision in response to discussions with New Hampshire treatment providers. Over the past four years, New Hampshire has received approximately $92 million from these grants to combat the opioid epidemic in the state. In FY 2022 government funding legislation, Shaheen secured $572.5 million to help communities and first responders respond to substance use crises, including opioid addiction and drug trafficking. This also includes $415 million for Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) grants, which support programs like drug, mental health and veteran treatment courts and substance use disorder treatment programs administered by state and local correctional facilities. Last year, Senator Shaheen helped introduce the bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery (CARA) Act 3.0 to help combat the opioid epidemic by increasing the funding authorization levels for these programs. Shaheen also secured funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) anti-heroin task force and anti-methamphetamine task force programs.
Rep. Annie Kuster is a leading voice in Congress to address the addiction and mental health crisis. A senior member of the influential Energy and Commerce Committee and co-founder of the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force, Kuster has championed legislation to bolster our national response to the substance use and mental health epidemic. Earlier this month, she helped advance five pieces of legislation included in the Task Force’s 2021 Legislative Agenda to reduce demand, hold illicit distributors accountable, and turn the tide on this crisis.
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