ETSU: Dr. Anthony DeLucia Awarded $49K Through ARC INSPIRE Initiative

From East Tennessee State University:

February 24, 2022

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – An East Tennessee State University medical professor
was awarded more than $49,000 by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to support
planning of a Northeast Tennessee alliance to support veterans in recovery from substance
use disorder.

Dr. Anthony DeLucia, professor of research in the Quillen College of Medicine Department of Surgery, authored the ETSU grant titled “VetSASA: Veterans Substance Abuse Support Alliance
of Northeast Tennessee.” VetSASA is one of 17 projects receiving more than $5.5 million
in the second round of Investments Supporting Partnerships In Recovery Ecosystems
(INSPIRE), an ARC initiative addressing Appalachia’s substance use disorder (SUD)
crisis through projects that create or expand a recovery ecosystem leading to workforce
entry or re-entry.

“I congratulate Dr. DeLucia on his INSPIRE award and applaud his work in helping those
in addiction recovery break the barriers to entering the workforce,” said ARC Federal
Co-Chair Gayle Manchin. “The substance use disorder crisis isn’t only a health and
family issue – it also has severe economic impacts, keeping many Appalachians from
participating in the labor force and contributing to the region’s economic growth.

“With ARC’s INSPIRE initiative, we’re starting to change that. INSPIRE projects focus
on creating recovery-friendly work environments, providing supports to both individuals
in recovery and their employers, and training individuals to meet the demand in growing
professions. When we help individuals in recovery succeed, our communities succeed.”

The VetSASA 18-month planning grant, which will run through June 2023, will support
the formation of a coalition of stakeholders from an eight-county region that will
work to support veterans. Among these groups are veterans organizations; SUD patients
and health care providers; employers; chambers of commerce; faith-based organizations;
social services; local governments; K-12, higher education and technology partners;
food, housing and transportation providers; law enforcement and court system representatives;
and others.

DeLucia said one goal supported by the grant is to bring this coalition together for
a conference this fall to learn more about veterans affected by SUD and develop ways
to increase veteran job training, placement and support activities.

For his proposal, DeLucia analyzed Veterans Affairs data showing approximately 41,000
veterans living in the eight counties comprising the First Tennessee Development District.
His analysis showed a high unemployment rate, especially since the inception of the
COVID crisis.

“To make matters worse,” he wrote, “Post-traumatic stress disorder, the despair found
in the most severely disabled, everyday mental challenges, homelessness, food insecurity,
lack of transportation, and more can create a fertile setting for suicides and use
of opioids as well as other harmful substances. The current problem is layered with
complexities … (and) our veterans, particularly, languish as victims of ‘deaths of
despair’ they incur as a result of inadequate bipartisan and nationwide measures.”

“Rather than saying, ‘What’s wrong with folks who have these issues?’, we’ve got to
transform this,” DeLucia said in an interview. “We’re going through a tough period
right now, and a group that’s really gone through a tough period is our nation’s warriors.
Maybe this is a leg up on how we engage that community, because they’re so deserving
and so underappreciated. We say, ‘Thank you for your service,’ and then we ignore
you? No. That doesn’t connect. This grant is going to be one way to really branch
out and do a lot of very meaningful work.”

In developing his VetSASA proposal, DeLucia was aided by Luke Dawson, a second-year
medical student at Quillen and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, who assisted with data
analysis in a summer research project that was originally intended to address “deaths
of despair.”

“I was eager to use some of the demographic data and health metrics to really figure
out what the root causes were here,” Dawson said. “But as we started interacting with
stakeholders and networking, it became very apparent that there’s a huge appetite
for direction on this. Being able to connect all the stakeholders through small groups
and a larger conference, we can, in a data-driven way, compile the most efficacious
approaches to address these problems and to prop up an infrastructure to allow people
with substance use disorders to climb their way out of it. In talking to people, we
realized that the sooner this happens, the better. We need a good plan that can be
enacted quickly, because people are suffering.”

Since INSPIRE was established in April 2021, ARC has invested in $14.9 million in
47 projects. To continue supporting Appalachia’s recovery ecosystems, ARC is currently
accepting proposals for a third round of INSPIRE awards. Additional information and
resources are available at arc.gov/sud/.

The ARC is an economic development partnership agency of the federal government and
13 state governments focusing on 423 counties across the Appalachian region. ARC’s
mission is to innovate, partner and invest to build community capacity and strengthen
economic growth in Appalachia. To learn more, visit arc.gov/.

Learn more about ETSU’s Quillen College of Medicine at etsu.edu/com/.

This press release was produced by East Tennessee State University. The views expressed are the author's own.