Opioid use disorder is a complex problem. MiSUPER is a collaborative project that combines education with training events to increase awareness of opioid use disorder issues in communities, treatment options, and support for those in recovery.

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While the opioid overdose crisis knows no demographic boundaries, adults in rural areas often face additional challenges and risk factors, such as isolation and unemployment.

Funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), MiSUPER was a two-year collaborative project from MSU Extension, the MSU College of Human Medicine Family Medicine (MSU-CHM) and the Health Department of Northwest Michigan (HDNW). MiSUPER brought together highly skilled experts in opioid use disorder (OUD) and rural health with community-based professionals to address the clinical and social impacts of opioid misuse. The project built on MSU Extension’s current and past rural opioid misuse prevention educational initiatives, adding new staff and expanding the focus beyond prevention, to include treatment options and recovery.

The MiSUPER project’s goal was to increase awareness of opioid misuse in rural communities regarding prevention, addiction treatment options, and recovery support so that community members and healthcare professionals can recognize signs of problematic opioid use, suggest options for professional treatments, and support those in recovery.

Through MiSUPER, MSU Extension developed state-of-the-art training materials addressing the epidemic of OUDs in rural Michigan. During the course of the original project, we reached 1,000 rural community members through 25 training events and 150 health professionals through a separate provider training.

Today, MSU Extension’s MiSUPER project continues to evolve. With new funding from SAMHSA, MSU Extension began partnering with state Extension systems in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois to create a regional center for technical assistance and educational resources on opioid and stimulant use in rural areas. Check out the Great Lakes Regional Center’s website and sign up for the free newsletter to stay up to date on what’s happening.

Our team also continues to offer training and resources on OUD, harm reduction and the ways that policies, systems and environments criminalize and punish people who use substances — worsening the opioid overdose epidemic and the loss of our loved ones. You can request a presentation from our team and explore some of the resources available on this website, such as:

In Michigan . . .

5

people die every day from opioid overdose (2021)

31,017

non-fatal overdose emergency department visits in 2021

3,096

people died from opioid-related overdoses in 2021

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