This is a report from Grantmakers in Aging that is broken into two major sections. The first section looks at the crisis arising from opioids in rural communities and, in particular, the damage it is causing in the lives of many older people and families. The second section turns toward solutions, looking at a wide range of hopeful responses that governments, communities, and funders are already starting to put into place, and which ones are most promising to scale and support.

Several promising program models and funding sources are highlighted within this document.

This is a report from several collaborating organizations (authors Johnson and Beletsky) that provides recommendations on how to scale up re-entry services for incarcerated individuals during the coronavirus pandemic, in the context of the general public's support of different re-entry interventions as a result of COVID-19. 

This is a report from the National Academics of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that provides an in-depth examination on the slowing down of the growth and eventual decrease of life expectancy in the U.S. with a focus on an increase in deaths of despair (drug overdose deaths, alcohol-related deaths, and suicides) among working-age adults. 

This was a presentation done at the Rx Summit that describes how faith leaders and their community members are currently responding to the opioid epidemic as well as how community stakeholders can partner with faith-based organizations. Two faith-based initiatives in West Virginia and Ohio are highlighted.  

This is a presentation and webinar by Oregon SBIRT (author Winkle) that provides guidance on integrating harm reduction principles into screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) to improve this evidence-informed technique. The overall goal of this integration is to reduce harm and open pathways to treatment in the long run. There is information on the role that stigma plays in substance use disorder. 

This is a report from the National Academy of State Health Policy that reviews common data sources that can help state leaders address key issues, such as preventing substance use disorders and diversion of controlled substances, supporting harm reduction, increasing treatment capacity and service delivery, and understanding the needs of vulnerable populations. Best practices are highlighted. 

This is an academic paper that provides commentary on the macro-environmental factors, such as pervasive stigma and the war on drugs, that have impeded effective responses to the opioid crisis. The ripple effect of criminalizing people who use drugs is explored. 

This is a report from the International Public Safety Association that provides: an overview of naloxone, fentanyl, and first responder contact overdoses; a discussion of naloxone administration methods – including policy and legal considerations for administration; and the impact of the opioid crisis on first responders’ mental health and actions that agencies can take to respond to this. 

This is a report targeted towards community health centers that focuses on preventing the spread of infectious diseases related to intravenous drug use, institutional challenges, integration of opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment into primary care, and sharing information with the community.

This is an academic paper that shows that the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated the opioid crisis in Indianapolis. Overdose calls for service increased 43%, calls for service with naloxone administration increased 61%, and deaths from drug overdoses increased by 47%

This is an academic paper that describes an educational intervention done by pharmacy students targeting pharmacies that said they would not provide naloxone without a prescription, even though there was a standing order (i.e. naloxone is available without a prescription) in the state of Texas where the study was done. This academic detailing had positive effects on the availability of naloxone. 

This is an academic paper that describes an adaptation of one of the only syringe service programs in Florida, the IDEA Exchange, to the coronavirus pandemic. The program location had to temporarily close but a telemedicine clinic, called TeleMOUD, was started to deliver buprenorphine to their clients, which was found to be a feasible, low-threshold access program.