Location and Population

The target population for the project HOPE is the rural communities of Henderson County. Henderson County, one of the 23 counties in the far northeastern area also known as the Health and Human Services’ Region 4 (R4), is made up of 20 completely rural municipalities (incorporated cities, towns & census designated places). R4 is characterized by its higher-than-state-average rural nature, with 64% of the population living in U.S. Census-defined rural areas.

The primary service areas for the project are all the 20 completely rural and medically underserved municipalities of Henderson County whose seat is the city of Athens. The County has an opioid prescribing rate of 69.2%. With an average (2014-2018) drug overdose mortality rate of 27.5 deaths per 100K population, a rate slightly higher than the national average of 27.1 and significantly higher than the State of Texas at 14.3 and ranking in the top 6% (higher than 240) of Texas counties, Henderson County is heavily burdened by SUD/OUD.

Project HOPE is supported by funding from the Health Resources and Service Administration’s (HRSA) Rural Community Opioid Response Program (RCORP) implementation II. This project will empower the community to utilize evidence-based practices and guidelines to reduce demand for and access to opioid and other illicit drugs/substances in the community and mitigate harmful consequences and downstream health effects of opioid/substance misuse such as drug overdose premature death.