Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council Statewide Community Grants: Cycle 2 Announcement

Article title superimposed over a gavel, money, and pills.

The Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council (OAC) has announced the next round of statewide community grants. The due date for applications is Dec. 13, 2024 at 10 p.m. central time. The application portal will open at 12 a.m. central time on November 12 and close at 10 p.m. central time on

New Research: Do People Actually Use Fentanyl Test Strips to Avoid Overdose?

Fentanyl testing strips (FTS) were decriminalized in Tennessee in 2022, and since then have become a widely used tool for harm reduction efforts across the state. Considering that fentanyl has almost entirely replaced heroin and other opioids in the drug supply, we sought to find out if people remained interested

SMART in the news: Large Crowd Shows Up To Discuss Proposed Rehabilitation Center In Rhea County

A standing room only crowd attended the workshop of the Rhea County Commission for a discussion on a continuing item, Our Fathers House….Commissioner Stephens said, “I am not against this. We need to slow down and make sure that we see that it is done right. I am not against

Roane County Recognized for Opioid Settlement Strategy

Roane County is honored to announce it has received an award for Excellence in the Application of the Opioid Litigation Principles. These principles, crafted by a coalition of organizations across the substance use field and expert faculty from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, represents a set of

UT SMART and Partners Awarded Grand Challenges Grants

UT SMART is proud to announce that we are part of teams that have been awarded two of the Type 1 UT Grand Challenges grants, which have been launched to foster partnerships that develop innovative solutions to some of the state’s most pressing issues: strengthening rural communities, overcoming addiction, and

(Podcast) Data, Compassion, & Leadership: How Police Can Prevent Overdose Deaths

Click here to listen on Spotify When staff shortages and tight funding meet a rise in drug crime, you might not expect an overburdened police department to make extra work for themselves. Yet that is exactly what happened in Chattanooga in the mid 2010s, when calls to EMS started backing

UT SMART Helps College Students Get Direct Experience with Addiction Medicine

The article below is quoted from “UT Works with Community Partners to Address Health Issues in Rural Counties and Underserved Groups,” published on UT’s Research, Innovation & Economic Development website on August 28th, 2024. Please see the full article to learn about other ways in which UT is helping to

SMART in the news: “Fatal Overdoses in Nashville are Down More Than 20 percent in 2024”

SMART’s Middle Tennessee Substance Use Response Consultant, Trevor Henderson, provides some key insight into what we are seeing with overdose trends. See below and read the full article for all pertinent information. “Still, the new data provides grounds for cautious optimism about turning the tide of a crisis that has

(Podcast) Potency And Supply: Fentanyl, Meth, And The “Drugification” Of Culture (feat. Sam Quinones)

Click here to listen on Spotify “How can anyone be doing drugs when we all know fentanyl is in everything?” We at UT SMART hear this question a lot from community leaders across the state. How is it that people keep risking their lives when we know for a fact

Webinar: Using Local Data to Inform Decisions

SMART’s Program Coordinator, Jeremy Kourvelas, presented to the Tennessee Public Health Association (TPHA) on best practices relating to using local data to inform decisions, covering: common challenges with data collection and quality data-influenced policymaking frameworks data and the overdose crisis practical recommendations with examples from abating the overdose epidemic. This

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