To combat the opioid epidemic, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) implemented the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Expansion Project. The Project aims to increase access to MAT, reduce unmet treatment needs, and reduce opioid overdose-related deaths through the prevention, treatment, and recovery activities.

Since 2017, over $7 million grant dollars were distributed in 55 of California’s 58 counties. With those monies, the MAT Expansion Project made significant accomplishments such as providing MAT to 22,000 new patients, distributed 244,428 naloxone kits which saved approximately 7,500 lives with the opioid overdose reversal medication, created 650 new access points where patients can receive treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), trained 395 new providers to prescribe MAT, established 52 hospitals / ERs to provide referrals to OUD treatment for 2,340 individuals and expanded access to MAT in jails and drug courts in 29 counties, providing MAT in jails to 1,646. Click here to learn more about the California MAT Expansion Project or click here to read the California MAT Expansion Project Performance Progress Report.