This is a toolkit from SAMHSA that provides guidance on implementing prevention strategies through the Strategic Prevention Framework, which focuses on assessment, capacity, planning, implementation, and evaluation to understand and address substance misuse and related complex behavioral health problems facing states and communities.

This is a policy brief from the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) that gives an overview of the scope of the opioid crisis, discusses treatment options, and gives a summary of federal and state-level initiatives responding to this public health emergency. There is a special emphasis on the role of health education specialists in the opioid crisis.

This is a joint report by the National League of Cities and the National Association of Counties that is targeted to local leaders as well as state and federal officials, and which provides recommendations for solutions on the entire continuum of care.

Framing the opioid crisis from a public health perspective requires considering the interaction of multiple determinants, including structural factors (eg, poverty and racism), the inadequate management of pain, and poor access to addiction treatment and harm-reduction services (eg, syringe services). 

This novel ecological framework for harmful opioid use provides multiple recommendations to improve public health and clinical practice, including improved data collection to guide resource allocation, steps to increase safer prescribing, stigma-reduction campaigns, increased spending on harm reduction and treatment, criminal justice policy reform, and regulatory changes related to controlled substances.

This is an academic paper that provides a scoping review of opioid policy interventions that the federal and state governments as well as organizations have used to address the opioid crisis, some of which include prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP), pain clinic laws, laws restricting opioid prescribing, health insurance strategies, educational interventions, and naloxone distribution. The evidence for each intervention is assessed.  

This academic paper describes a study where investigators interviewed rural community stakeholders in areas impacted by the opioid crisis to better understand what responsive strategies should be implemented there. The results indicated that rural community stakeholders are valuable resource for strategy development. Specific factors identified include expansion of long term rehabilitation programs and judicial reform for those with opioid use disorder. 

This is a peer-reviewed article on an observational intervention study of Project Lazarus, which is a community-based response to overdose deaths implemented in 74 of 100 North Carolina counties.

This is an academic paper that provides an overview of employer-led interventions aimed at addressing drug use among employees. Overall, 27 studies in the peer-reviewed literature are highlighted, with interventions addressing opioid use and misuse after workplace injuries or accidents the most commonly reported to be effective. 

This is an academic paper which summarizes the literature on academic detailing (AD) interventions for opioids. Academic detailing is an education outreach intervention to encourage more cautious opioid prescribing for providers and may improve patient outcomes. AD might also include education on naloxone. The authors conclude that AD programs were generally effective based on a variety of measures.

A toolkit for provider organizations working to improve opioid safety. The toolkit summarizes best practices and contains links to resources and tools that a provider can adapt in building or testing changes for an organization and its patients.

A toolkit from the City of Boston's Office of Recovery Services, directed towards a city-level response to substance misuse, that summarizes multifaceted strategies. It offers a guide for how to talk about substance use, an overview of the treatment system, and types of partnerships and policies that may strengthen a city’s response to this crisis.

This website from the Addiction Policy Forum provides educational content on youth prevention, the science of addiction, and fentanyl in a dozen different languages.