Great Lakes Wire

LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Director Elizabeth Hertel joined other health and community leaders today at the Detroit Recovery Project (DRP) to discuss how key budget investments are addressing substance use disorder (SUD) and the opioid crisis in Michigan. The roundtable discussion focused on the FY 2025 Budget, which includes nearly $300 million in SUD funding comprised of $190 million of federal funding, $58 million in general funding, and $48.2 million in appropriated settlement funding.

Hertel was joined by Thomas Stallworth, MDHHS senior advisor and former director of the Governor’s Coronavirus Racial Disparities Task Force; Dr. Andre Johnson, DRP president and CEO; as well as other community partners and advocates.

“The FY 2025 budget addresses substance use disorder and includes funding for primary prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery support,” said Elizabeth Hertel. “These initiatives support evidence-based programming to address and reduce harm associated with the opioid crisis, and benefit thousands of impacted Michigan families.”

The FY 2025 budget makes significant investments to help address SUD, including:

- Neighborhood Wellness Centers: $500,000

- Naloxone portal: $2,432,300

- Syringe service program operations: $3,511,250

- Transportation for treatment: $2,500,000

- Expanding capacity to treat OUD and SUD through the Medicaid Recovery Incentives Pilot: $2,000,000

- Programs for families engaged with Children’s Services Administration: $2,108,750

- Medication OUD and SUD programs and technical assistance for jails: $2,250,000

- Expansion of recovery support services: $5,880,000

- Funding for tribes: $2,000,000

DRP has served the Detroit community since 2005 with a whole health approach to substance use prevention, treatment and recovery. A Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC), DRP provides outpatient recovery support services for those with substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders. They treat the whole person through integrated programs of primary medical and behavioral health care.

DRP receives funding from MDHHS for all four pillars of MDHHS’s overdose response strategy. Opioid settlement funds as well as other funds administered by MDHHS fund services at DRP including transportation for medical appointments and SUD treatment. Settlement funds support essential harm reduction/prevention work and naloxone access in Detroit by DRP which reaches more Black Michiganders than any other organization. DRP also has a full-time nurse practitioner as part of their outreach efforts to help with wound care.

“Michigan is a leader in addressing substance use disorder and the state has moved from 15th to 30th nationally in overdose deaths which have continued to decrease since 2018,” said Stallworth. “Though Michigan continues to experience promising decreases in overdoses we continue to see Black residents overdosing at nearly three times more often than the state average. MDHHS is addressing disparities by prioritizing the needs of vulnerable populations as we distribute settlement dollars across the state.”

Michigan is slated to receive nearly $1.6 billion from national opioid settlements by 2040 with half being distributed to the State of Michigan Opioid Healing and Recovery Fund and the other half being distributed directly to county city and township governments. MDHHS has developed a proposed Opioid Settlement Spend Plan for FY 2025 funding that has been driven by data including the Opioid Settlement Prioritization Survey 2021–22 as well as ongoing programming needs and gaps due to federal funding restrictions.

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