MILLEN, Ga () – Jenkins County Medical Center receiving a life changing grant to help support efforts against the opioid epidemic.

The Jenkins County Medical Center was one of three health centers to receive $300,000 to help fight the opioid crisis across Georgia.

Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff announcing $900,000 will be split among three Georgia healthcare entities.

Andrea Graham, Chief Executive Officer of Jenkins County Medical Center, applied for this grant at the beginning of March and explains what they will use the money for.

“A dedicated overdose response and decontamination area, we’ll have it for automated CPR devices for our patients, we’ll have it for Narcan kits to distribute throughout our community, and it will also be used for substance abuse education and referral programs,” said Graham.

Graham says many families in Jenkins County have sadly had substance abuse affect them in some way. She says this will give their community hope.

“That we can be that resource for them, so we’re not just taking care of them during that crisis, we’re actually making that investment after they’ve had this experience and what we can do to help them throughout, because this is a process,” Graham said.

Katy Hood, Director of the Behavioral Health Unit, says the new equipment and resources will be pivotal in giving families’ the peace of mind knowing if they have a loved one that overdoses, their ER will be even more equipped to help in a timely manner.

“We’re a very rural area and we have very limited resources at this time and time is of the essence in these situations so having these devices available, having these kits available and having people that are trained properly use them is going to make a huge difference in our community,” Hood said.

The hospital will have nearly a year to use this money and in that time they will train staff, expand their outreach and hope to reach their goal of reducing fatal overdoses.