This is an academic article that gives an overview of the barriers to implementing evidence-based interventions to address the opioid crisis and how the HEALing Communities Study, a multi-year initiative, aims to overcome these barriers through cautious opioid prescribing, expanding medications for opioid use disorder, increasing access to naloxone, and leveraging community collaboration. 

This is a brief from the Flex Monitoring Team (authors Gale et al.) that highlights examples of strategies adopted by rural critical access hospitals (CAHs) to combat opioid use in their communities and identifies resources that rural communities can use to support CAHs in their efforts with this challenging public health issue.

This is an academic paper that provides an overview of the University of Cincinnati/UC Health Opioid Task Force, which has helped respond to the opioid crisis in an area that has been particularly hard hit. With a specific focus on medical professionals and healthcare systems, the task force encourages interdisciplinary partnerships, leads educational events, supports local agencies, and participates in government initiatives. 

This is a report from CADCA that discusses the role that community prevention coalitions can play in reducing opioid misuse. Examples from coalitions in Carter County, Kentucky and Scioto County, Ohio are provided, two models that have successfully reduced prescription opioid misuse in their communities.

This is an issue brief from the Brandeis Opioid Resource Connector that examines the role of social determinants of health (SDoH) in the opioid crisis and how addressing them might improve health outcomes. It focuses on three central domains of SDoH, employment, housing, and education, and highlights promising program models in each domain as implemented by communities in the United States.

This is an academic paper that shows that there is a strong relationship between medical school rank and opioid prescribing. Physicians who completed their initial training at top medical schools wrote significantly fewer opioid prescriptions annually than physicians from lower ranked schools, even within the same specialty and practice location, highlighting the importance of the impact of physician education on opioid prescribing. 

This is an academic paper that provides commentary on the risk factors for substance use among youth that have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Challenges to program adaptions for this population are highlighted and recommendations are made. 

This is a report by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) that offers strategies on how health plans can best address the opioid crisis, broken down into each component of the continuum of care: prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery. It also highlights the successes of several health plans. 

This is a report from the National League of Cities entitled “Aligning City, County and State Resources to Address the Opioid Epidemic: Lessons Learned and Future Opportunities” which is targeted to municipal governments and other government entities.

This document shares the key findings, emerging priorities, lessons learned, and future strategies for six cities involved in responses to the opioid epidemic.  

This is an academic paper by experts in the field that discusses the need for a comprehensive approach to address the opioid crisis. A multidisciplinarian approach should include the contributions of neuroscience, pharmacology, epidemiology, treatment services, and prevention, which are integrated across multiple settings, including healthcare, criminal justice, education, and social service systems.

This is a report, put together by NORC for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), that examines the long-term sustainability and impact of community coalitions that were funded by the Community Access Program (CAP) and its successor, the Healthy Communities Access Program (HCAP), which amounted to $525 million in grants from 2000 to 2006.

Within this document, community coalition characteristics that predict sustainability are discussed. Though the coalitions analyzed did not only represent substance misuse programs, the findings may be generalizable to opioid coalitions and task forces. 

This is an academic paper that describes how an opioid stewardship program at a healthcare system can address the opioid crisis. Institutional changes include reviewing current practice, workflows, and external and internal guidelines and evaluating and standardizing prescribing practices.