Feds award $3.6M to Indiana clinics to fight opioid abuse

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A federal agency has awarded nearly two dozen Indiana health centers a combined $3.6 million to help them combat opioid abuse.

The funding announced Thursday by the Health and Human Services will enable 21 health centers across the state to increase patient access to both mental health and substance abuse services.

The grants will go directly to local organizations the federal agency has determined are best situated to address their communities' substance abuse and mental health challenges.

The funding is part of the agency's ongoing strategies for fighting the opioid abuse epidemic.

Those efforts include boosting access to treatment and recovery services, targeting the use of overdose-reversing drugs, increasing public health surveillance and supporting new research on pain and addiction.