St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Miners Campus has been awarded $200,000 by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to create a Rural Communities Opioid Response Plan.

St. Luke’s Department of Community Health & Preventive Medicine will lead a consortium of school districts and other community organizations in the development of the plan, which will address gaps in prevention, treatment and training for opioid abuse in the Coaldale area, a federally designated medically under served rural area, and in the surrounding region, which has been severely affected by the opioid crisis.

Gregory Dobash, M.D., of St. Luke’s Ashland Family Practice, is the site director of the Rural Training Track of St. Luke’s Family Medicine Residency Program.

The project is part of SLUHN CH&PM program’s broader mission to increase health awareness, encourage appropriate access to health services and improve the health status of the community.