MaineHealth, a healthcare network connecting 12 hospitals in Maine and New Hampshire, has received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for a statewide overdose and infection prevention program focused on harm reduction.
The program, Distribution of Harm Reduction Access in Rural Maine Areas (Project DHARMA), is a collaboration among MaineHealth and several community organizations including public health agencies, syringe service programs, academic institutions and other treatment providers. Its goals are to provide clients of syringe service programs in Maine’s rural counties with harm reduction supplies and to connect them with care for infectious disease prevention and treatment, wound care and substance use.