Cochise County has received a $100,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for its health and social staff to address substance abuse issues across the region. 

The grant, which was awarded to the county by the Arizona Department of Health Services through a contract with the Arizona Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention Program, will create awareness among health care providers of safe opioid prescribing practices and treatment resources.

Mira Ibarra, a Bisbee-based public health nurse, will receive training by the state. She will then travel across the county to meet with health care providers who prescribe opioids. 

“This is not a program focused on how providers should practice,” Director of Cochise County Health & Social Services Carrie Langley said in a press release. “This is about educating them on the systems in place that can support them. 

The program will be funded annually until 2022. 

“We want to get more providers actively involved in using this system,” Langley said in the statement. “This is also about encouraging providers to take a more mindful approach when it comes to prescribing pain killers, and to help them with the referral process when they identify challenges. This is not just limited to opioids, but to all forms of substance abuse.”