The vendor required to provide advancing cross-cutting engagement and strategies services (ACCESS) grant shall be for the purpose of reducing morbidity and mortality among people who use drugs.
- Required activities
• Providing education on recognizing the signs and symptoms of opioid overdose and compassionate overdose response strategies that emphasize restoring breathing while avoiding withdrawal,
• Prescribing and dispensing naloxone, and the necessary supplies for its administration, to program participants,2
• Providing drug testing strips, as required by agency, to program participants,3 and
• Prioritizing services for people who are most likely to witness an overdose, including people who use drugs and their friends and family.
- Core activities
• As a state-approved OADPOP, distribute sterile injection equipment and other supplies for the prevention of overdose and infectious disease.
• As a state-approved OADPOP, participate in the rapid analysis of drugs (rad) program.
• Provide peer support services.
• Provide education on overdose and infectious disease prevention.
• Provide mobile or community-based drug checking utilizing Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) or other department -approved drug testing equipment.
• Provide drug-related wound care education, services, and supplies.
• Provide low-barrier ACCESS to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), including methadone and buprenorphine.
• Expand options for the collection and safe disposal of used injection equipment.
• Provide linkages to somatic and behavioral health care, care coordination, housing and employment services.
• Conduct direct outreach and engagement with overdose survivors (i.e., individuals who have recently experienced a non-fatal overdose).
• These activities must utilize trained outreach workers operating under documented outreach protocols that include referral to an opioid-associated disease prevention and outreach program (OADPOP), when available, as part of the outreach protocol.
• Systematically collect and incorporate input from people who use drugs about service quality and delivery.
• Conduct a needs assessment to identify populations that are not accessing services and inform new service delivery strategies.
• Develop and support community advisory boards.
• Employ navigators to connect people to services.
• Navigators can include peer navigators, certified peer recovery specialists, peer support specialists, case managers, patient navigators, community health workers, people with lived experience, and other individuals who link PWUD to care and resources.
- Pre-Application Conference Date: January 5, 2026
