WASHINGTON — The West Virginia State Department of Health and Human Resources has received a $1,331,985 Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention Grant that will be used to enact and evaluate prevention strategies to end prescription drug abuse and overdoses, according to a release.
"With the number of overdose deaths skyrocketing in West Virginia, we must continue doing everything possible to prevent prescriptions from ending up in the wrong hands," said U.S. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who helped secure the funding as a member of the labor, health and human services, and education appropriations subcommittee.
"This funding will help to prevent prescription drug overdoses by maximizing efforts to expand prescription drug monitoring programs, providing technical assistance to communities that are most likely to experience overdoses, and evaluating the existing policies to better understand what is working to prevent overdoses," U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D.W.Va., said in the release.
The funding was awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.