Published August 22, 2022
CAPTION: The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration awarded a $2.5 million grant to Dr. Alexis Horace, ULM associate
professor of clinical practice, for harm reduction education.
MONROE, LA – The University of Louisiana Monroe College of Pharmacy received a fully-funded grant
to provide harm reduction education to first responders and decrease opioid overdose
deaths in the state of Louisiana. The grant is the largest award given to the University
in more than a decade.
The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration awarded the $2,475,408 four-year grant to Dr. Alexis Horace,
associate professor of clinical practice. Her research team includes ULM faculty members
Dr. Oscar Garza, Dr. Stephen Hill, Dr. Jameshia Below and Edward Via College of Osteopathic
Medicine pharmacology chair Dr. Stephanie Anderson.
The grant will fund a training program called ULM HERO, which stands for Harm Reduction
Education and Referral for Opioid Overdose Reversal. Horace and her team will lead
educational programs for first responders and community members in Ouachita Parish,
Orleans Parish and surrounding rural parishes. Participating first responders will
learn how to administer opioid reversal medications like naloxone and how to refer
people who use opioids to treatment and recovery centers.
“There is a stigma with people who use opioids which keeps them from seeking help
from first responders and also a stigma first responders may have with people who
use opioids. This grant will bridge that gap and help people save lives,” Horace said.
“This will arm our first responders with the resources to help guide people who are
willing to go to treatment centers. It’s not just giving first responders naloxone,
but giving them the information and a network to help folks enter treatment centers.”
Her first step in the grant is hiring key staff and building the educational curriculum
for a diverse group of first responders with her team.
“The term ‘first responders’ is defined broadly. We have our traditional first responders,
like police officers, EMS, firefighters and FEMA. We will target those organizations
with our harm reduction education course,” Horace explained. “The second group of
first responders are those that live in our communities. It is the person who is the
first to respond to a scene. It may not necessarily be someone who is a medical personnel,
but a friend or a family member.”
The ULM HERO program will also educate first-responders-in-training, as well as key
community organizations. To reach citizens, Horace’s team will host 50 community events
to provide risk reduction education in underserved communities.
“We want to provide people who live in medical deserts with education about opioids,”
she said.
Horace teaches at the ULM College of Pharmacy’s satellite campus in New Orleans, where
she leads a team of fourth-year rotation students at CrescentCare, a community health
center. She said she was inspired to write the grant because of the passion exhibited
by her ULM student-pharmacists who participate in CrescentCare’s New Orleans Syringe
Access Program. They offer naloxone education and distribution alongside NOSAP staff
who provide and exchange clean syringes to New Orleans community members.
“A student approached me and said she wanted to do a research project on addiction
and syringe access. We began providing naloxone education and distribution at the
beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and during that time I became very passionate about
it,” she said. “Many of the clients and the staff have touched my life. The amount
of thankfulness I see when people receive opioid education really humbled me.”
Horace’s goal is to provide education to 4,000 first responders in Louisiana by 2026
and to increase the program’s collaborations with local treatment and recovery centers
by 80 percent.
“My team and I are ready to help our first responders in our community and make a
big change in Louisiana,” she said. “It’s going to be used and it’s going to save
lives.”
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