FY17 Prevention of Opioid Misuse in Women: Office on Women Health Prevention Awards (OWHPA) | WH AST 17 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for WH AST 17 001

The FY17 Prevention of Opioid Misuse in Women: Office on Women Health Prevention Awards (OWHPA) is a discretionary federal funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, aimed at reducing both prescription and non-prescription opioid misuse among women across the lifespan. It uses a cooperative agreement mechanism, signaling that recipients should expect substantial involvement from the funding agency in shaping or supporting the work. The opportunity was created January 17, 2017, with an original application closing date of April 7, 2017. Awards were expected to be made to roughly 12 recipients, with a maximum award ceiling of $100,000 per award (as listed in the source data).

At its core, the announcement is about prevention, specifically primary and/or secondary prevention. It encourages applicants to identify populations of women who are being missed by traditional outreach and services, then build practical strategies to close those gaps. The notice highlights two underserved groups as examples: adolescent girls (roughly ages 10 to 17) and women age 50 and older. For adolescent girls, the rationale is that experimentation and early misuse can occur well before adulthood, and national survey data cited in the announcement (2014 and 2015 NSDUH) indicate that girls ages 12 to 17 reported consistent use of prescription and psychotherapeutic drugs at rates that meet or exceed boys in the same age range. For older women, the opportunity emphasizes that they are often overlooked because they do not match common stereotypes of opioid misuse, yet they may face heightened risk due to chronic pain, complex medical histories with multiple prescribers, fragmented care, and increased access to prescription medications. It also points to age-related factors such as increased medication sensitivity, slower metabolism and elimination, and potential cognitive decline, all of which can contribute to unintentional misuse and related harms.

Applicants are allowed to design projects that target consumers (women and girls), health professionals, or both. For proposals involving clinicians or other health professionals, the announcement suggests incorporating evidence-based screening and early intervention approaches such as Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), and paying attention to breakdowns in health service delivery that create preventable risk. Examples of these system gaps include failing to integrate prevention into primary care workflows or not knowing how and when to screen for misuse. In other words, the funding is not just looking for public awareness messaging; it is also looking for improvements in how prevention is built into real-world care settings and referral pathways.

A major structural requirement of the program is partnership. The Office on Women’s Health (OWH) expects applicants to work through organized collaborations among regional, state, local, and/or community-based organizations to increase local capacity, improve education for women and providers, and contribute to policy efforts related to opioid misuse. For this program, a partnership is not a casual relationship; it is defined as a documented arrangement where two or more entities share resources (skills, staff capacity, finances, access to communities, and other assets) to achieve a common outcome. Applicants are expected to include at least three partners in the application, including at least one long-term partner (defined as a relationship already in place for three to five years prior to applying). Additional partners may be added later if needed, but the baseline expectation is that the proposed work is grounded in established, credible collaborations.

The application must also include documentation of partner roles and commitment. The announcement differentiates between (1) letters of commitment from partners that will serve as subrecipients, which must be specific and detailed, and (2) letters of support from partners that are not subrecipients, which can be more general. Letters of commitment are expected to describe the length of the relationship, the specific roles each partner will play, the resources they will contribute, and the activities they will carry out, along with the partner’s relevant expertise and access to the target population. Letters of support may express confidence in the applicant and interest in collaboration, but they are not meant to substitute for clearly defined subrecipient commitments. Importantly, all letters are expected to reflect a serious commitment to socio-economic diversity and to addressing cultural and social determinants that can block prevention and treatment, including stigma, fear of criminalization, and implicit or systemic bias within health systems.

From an eligibility and readiness standpoint, applicants must demonstrate real experience in behavioral health, substance use prevention, and opioid misuse, either directly or through their partnerships. OWH also expects applicants to show they understand and can incorporate women-specific factors that shape risk and prevention, such as chronic pain dynamics, trauma, and caretaking roles that may influence help-seeking, treatment adherence, or exposure to prescription opioids. The overall emphasis is on tailoring prevention approaches to women’s lived realities rather than applying generic substance use prevention models without modification.

In terms of what can be funded, the announcement encourages applicants to propose original projects but also explicitly supports adapting and customizing existing publicly available projects, strategy models, and tools to avoid duplicating what already exists. Funded work is expected to be implemented and evaluated, and applicants are encouraged to make end products available at no cost to users when possible. The opportunity is clear that it will not fund human subject clinical trials (Phase I, II, or III). Instead, it focuses on practical prevention deliverables such as developing and evaluating an activity or series of activities (then piloting and implementing them), developing and piloting tools (including tangible materials, electronic resources, or social media-based tools), creating decision aids or other community-required formats, or developing/refining/adapting health policy initiatives with measurement of impact.

Across all allowable approaches, OWH sets consistent quality expectations for deliverables: end products must be evidence-based, patient-centered, and designed to encourage communication between women and health professionals, strengthening shared decision-making around prevention. Proposals must clearly define the target audience and justify it using credible data that demonstrate need. They must also explain how the project will address or mitigate key social and cultural barriers such as stigma, fear of legal consequences, and bias in health care delivery, because these factors can directly undermine prevention efforts even when services technically exist.

Finally, the announcement strongly encourages applicants to align with and reference existing federal guidance and frameworks, both to strengthen scientific grounding and to reduce redundant efforts. Examples listed include the CDC’s 2016 opioid prescribing guideline for chronic pain, the National Pain Management Strategy, the Surgeon General’s report on substance use and misuse (Facing Addiction), the OWH White Paper on Women and Opioids, AHRQ resources on integrating behavioral health and primary care, and SAMHSA’s SBIRT guidance. In the broader policy context, the funding opportunity is positioned as supporting HHS priorities such as strengthening prescription drug monitoring, improving safe disposal of unused medications, accelerating research on pain and opioid misuse/overdose, advancing prescriber education, promoting safer pain management approaches, and expanding telemedicine access in rural areas.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY17 Prevention of Opioid Misuse in Women: Office on Women Health Prevention Awards (OWHPA)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.088.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jan 17, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 07, 2017 No Explanation. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $100,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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