This brief from the State Health Access Data Assistance Center examines the United States opioid crisis, analyzing trends in overdose deaths from heroin and other opioids, such as prescription…

This is a report from the National Interoperability Collaborative (NIC) that provides eleven recommendations targeted at preventing opioid use disorder (OUD) overdose death. Several of these include addressing trauma, cutting down on the supply of prescription and illicit opioids, and treating…

This is an article from the Harvard Political Review that describes the impact of the opioid crisis on Hispanic/Latinx communities. Several culturally competent interventions are discussed. 

This report consists of four educational webcasts aimed towards educating healthcare professionals. These webcasts are focused on the stigma, discriminatory practices, and inaccurate perceptions present in dealing with individuals with substance use disorder and other similar conditions. They…

This academic paper provides an overview of the evolution of the opioid crisis framed as an epidemic of opioid addiction through overprescribing. Prevention strategies are discussed across three levels: preventing new cases of opioid addiction (primary prevention), identifying early cases of…

This is a 2015 report compiled by a multidisciplinary team focused on addressing the opioid crisis using three guiding principles: informing action with evidence, intervening comprehensively, and promoting appropriate and safe use of prescription opioids.

This is a comprehensive report that lays out the 56 recommendations made by the commission appointed by the Trump Administration to address the opioid crisis. After giving an overview of the opioid crisis and its wide-ranging impact, recommendations are made in the areas of federal funding,…

This is a report from the National Safety Council that examines how strong employee policies, alliances with health benefits and workers’ compensation plan providers, education, expanded drug-free workplace testing, and access to treatment programs can proactively address opioid misuse in the…

This is an academic paper that analyzes stakeholder interviews to explore strategies to sustain time-limited opioid grants and determine barriers and facilitators. Financing and reimbursement, service integration, and workforce capacity were the most cited barriers, and status in state…

This is a report from a convening of experts by the United Hospital Fund that describes in detail the ripple effect of the opioid crisis on families and communities. Recommendations are made to address the intergenerational and community-level impacts of opioid use disorder. Programs targeting…

This is an academic paper that gives an overview on the process of civil commitments for substance use disorders (SUD), which has been proposed by several states as a tool to combat the opioid crisis. A civil commitment is a policy that can be used by a court to force a person into treatment for…

Community health centers play an important role in efforts to address the opioid crisis. In many communities, they are on the front lines of this public health emergency and have become an important source of treatment for those with opioid use disorder (OUD). This issue brief presents findings…

This white paper aims to help shift the substance use disorders treatment field from an acute care model of treatment to a chronic care approach, known as recovery-oriented systems of care. Its purposes are twofold:

(1) To describe our understanding of the present state of recovery…

This publicly-available presentation from the Maine Rural Health Research Center (author John Gale) focuses on prevention, treatment, and recovery strategies that rural communities, particularly rural hospitals, can engage in to address the opioid crisis. Additionally, examples of existing…

This peer-reviewed paper describes an initiative to characterize and address the opioid crisis disproportionately impacting rural U.S. regions. It presents data from eight rural regions to better understand drug use, including drivers and potential interventions in rural areas with limited…

This brief document from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service provides a good synopsis of new legislation on legal requirements for prescribing buprenorphine via telemedicine.  

This Council of Economic Advisors report from 2017 estimates the economic cost of opioid overdose deaths using conventional economic estimates for valuing life…

This is a report from the Police Executive Research Forum that provides recommendations on how law enforcement can better address the opioid crisis in their communities.  

This is a report from the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare that provides an overview of two models of support for families—support by peers with lived experience of substance use disorders and sometimes child welfare involvement, and support by professionally-trained recovery…

This is an academic paper that contrasts media coverage of white non-medical opioid users with that of black and brown heroin users to show how divergent representations lead to different public and policy responses. Historically differential policy responses are discussed between the crack…