WVU in the News: Receives $1 million from opioid settlement to open new treatment beds in West Virginia

Source: West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

As part of a combined $20.8 million in state funding, West Virginia University will receive $1 million to open a residential treatment facility as part of the Chestnut Ridge Center and WVU Medicine.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) announced that funding has been awarded to nine substance use disorder programs to expand residential treatment services across West Virginia. The funding is supported by the Ryan Brown Addiction Prevention and Recovery Fund as part of a comprehensive statewide plan to combat the opioid epidemic.

Nine drug treatment programs in West Virginia were selected to receive additional funding, and the legislation requires that the money be spent on additional treatment beds:

• Living Free Ohio Valley, in Wheeling, which will receive $3 million to provide a recovery program for low-income women.
• Mountaineer Behavioral Health, in Martinsburg; $3 million to provide residential addiction treatment and long-term outpatient care.
• St. Joseph Recovery Center, in Parkersburg; $3 million to offer services in six counties — Boone, Jackson, McDowell, Mingo, Roane and Wyoming — hit hard by substance use.
• Westbrook Health Services, in Parkersburg; $1 million for long-term treatment.
• Valley HealthCare System, in Morgantown; $3 million to expand its number of short-term treatment beds and create long-term beds.
• West Virginia University Research Corp., in Morgantown; $1 million to open a residential treatment facility as part of the Chestnut Ridge Center and WVU Medicine.
• Marshall University Physicians and Surgeons, in Huntington; $2.8 million to provide residential treatment services for pregnant and post-partum women through the Marshall Recovery Center for Families.
• WestCare West Virginia, in Culloden; $1 million to establish a new substance use disorder treatment facility.
• Southern West Virginia Treatment Through Recovery Continuum, which includes FMRS Health Systems, Seneca Health Services and the Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center, all in Beckley; $3 million to add treatment beds and bolster occupancy rates of available beds in the region.

In April, the Legislature passed a plan (House Bill 2428) to take $24 million from recent lawsuit settlements with drug distributors and use the money to expand drug treatment facilities across the state.