Opioid abuse and overdose deaths continue to be a problem in rural America, not only taking lives but stressing rural communities.

The Trump administration launched an all-out effort to combat drug addiction and the opioid crisis in 2017.

Much of the focus at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and its partnership with USDA has been on what needs to be put in place in local communities to support local leaders, said Anne Hazlett, NCDP’s senior adviser for rural affairs.

“This is an issue that impacts communities, and what solves it is local efforts,” she said.

When the agencies started working on the issue, it became clear there was a huge need for data at the local level, she said.

That need was met with the development of the Community Assessment Tool, which provides data on overdose deaths, socio-demographics and economics for every county in the U.S.

It paints a picture of what might be going on in that county to drive drug abuse, she said.

There is also the Rural Resource Guide, which lists 140 pages of federal funding programs for rural communities to help address drug misuse.

The federal government has many programs available but most small towns don’t have a grant writer, and it can be hard to navigate what’s available, she said.

“This gives local leaders a place to start,” she said.

Another tool, recently released, is the Rural Community Action Guide.

It was born out of USDA’s series of roundtables in rural communities on the impacts of the opioid crisis and what rural partners were doing to help, she said.

Those rural partners — including the American Farm Bureau Federation and National Farmers Union — helped write the guide addressing action steps and promising practices learned on the frontlines.

It provides real-life recipes so people can build something that will work in their community, she said.

“I think people feel less overwhelmed when they see real-life action, not just theory,” she said.

To access the resources, go to https://www.usda.gov/topics/opioids

To access the Community Assessment Tool: https://opioidmisusetool.norc.org

To access the Rural Community Action Guide, go to https://bit.ly/38W7prE

To access the RCAG promising practices supplement, go to https://bit.ly/2Uf64H9

To access the Federal Rural Resources Guide, go to https://www.rd.usda.gov/files/RuralResourceGuide.pdf

Farm Town Strong: https://farmtownstrong.org/

USDA: https://www.usda.gov/topics/opioids

Farm Town Strong: https://farmtownstrong.org/

USDA: https://www.usda.gov/topics/opioids