Success with Opioid Settlement Funds and Request for Proposals - Reno County-Hutchinson Fights Addiction Fund

Opioid Settlement Funds Awarded and Successful Updates Shared and 
Request for Proposals: Reno County/Hutchinson Fights Addiction Fund 

Reno County, Kansas – September 25, 2024  

Opioid Settlement Funds Awarded

In 2024, the Opioid Settlement Funds Advisory Oversight Committee has awarded close to $100,000 in grant funding out of the nearly $300,000 that they have received for the two funds. The grant funding was awarded to Horizons Mental Health Center, United Way of Reno County, PrairieStar Health Center, and the Reno County District Attorney’s Office. Listed are the projects that received funding and their successful outcomes. 

Success in numbers
Horizons Mental Health Center
Project: Teen Intervene Early Education Prevention. Grant received $19,251.00
Horizons said that they reached approximately 165 youth who have stated that they have made efforts to manage peer pressure and to teach others in their families what they have learned. They also have utilized the “Teen Intervene” curriculum with youth that have come to Horizons on their own, seeking substance treatment. Horizons plans to continue to provide the early intervention curriculum in their substance treatment program to youth and parents as it is now a permanent service that they provide. 

United Way of Reno County
Project: Reno Connections, Kansas Certified Peer Mentor (KCPM). Grant received $25,000.00
Reno Connections has served 83 unduplicated members of the community. They have paid for 15 clients mental health/opioid treatment medications. Eight individuals have successfully obtained their state issued ID in which Reno Connections helped with the paperwork and purchasing. Additionally, two individuals were helped with obtaining their driver’s license, one of which is now employed as an over-the-road truck driver. Lastly, 15 birth certificates have been issued, because Reno Connections helped with the paperwork and paying for the cost. 

PrairieStar Health Center
Project: Medication Assisted Treatment program for Reno County. Grant received $25,000.00
The treatment program currently has 26 patients and six of them are new this year. The longer the patient stays in the program, the better the outcome. Through the combination of Suboxone, group therapy and individual therapy, patients are experiencing success and progressing toward long-term recovery.

Reno County District Attorney’s Office
Project: District Attorney’s First-time Drug Felony Diversion Program. Grant received $25,000.00
As of June 28, 2024, there were twelve individuals actively participating in the Felony Diversion Program with an additional five approved and scheduled to sign in the next month. Two defendants are pending approvals for the program. Out of the twelve currently on Diversion, eleven of those involved are actively participating in the treatment program following the guidelines of the program. The District Attorney’s Office is seeing that these individuals are taking the opportunity to not only keep a serious charge from going on their record, but actively working to improve their life by working on their sobriety and coping mechanisms for issues that may cause them to want to use drugs or alcohol in the future. There are a few individuals who started working on their treatment and sobriety as soon as they were arrested and are working through the program with ease. A couple individuals had to be reminded of the possible outcomes if they failed the program and their diversion were to be revoked. Those individuals are now doing amazingly well.