This is a rural health policy brief from the CDC, as a companion to its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report article Illicit Drug Use, Illicit Drug Use Disorders, and Drug Overdose Deaths in Metropolitan and Non-metropolitan areas, providing policy recommendations for rural areas in addressing the opioid crisis related to increasing adherence to evidence-based prescribing practices, expanding access to medication-assisted treatment, and increasing the availability of overdose-reversing drugs such as naloxone. Case studies of community programs are highlighted in this document. 

This is a presentation from the National Latino Behavioral Health Association (author Mancini) that describes the scope of the opioid crisis in Hispanic/Latinx communities, discusses contextual barriers to service in this population, and makes actionable solutions and policy recommendations. A few successfully implemented prevention models are highlighted.  

This study projected the effect of lowering incident nonmedical prescription opioid use on the future trajectory of the opioid overdose crisis in the United States. In this paper, the prevention of prescription opioid misuse alone is projected to have a modest effect on lowering opioid overdose deaths in the near future, and a multipronged approach is needed to dramatically change the course of the opioid crisis.

This is a website from Johns Hopkins University on how to use principles to guide states, counties, and local communities on how to most effectively and efficiently abate the opioid crisis with opioid settlement money. 

This is a report from the Well Being Trust that predicts, across nine different scenarios, additional deaths of despair range from 27,644 (quick recovery) to 154,037 (slow recovery), with somewhere in the middle being around 68,000. 

This is an academic paper that provides an overview of Oregon’s multidimensional approaches towards the opioid crisis, which achieved 20% reductions in opioid prescribing and a 30% reduction in the opioid overdose fatality rate. This comprehensive state response is framed in cautious opioid prescribing, increasing access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), and overdose prevention with naloxone. 

This is a report from the CDC which serves as a guide to help primary care providers, practices, and healthcare systems manage patients who are on long-term opioid therapy. The guidelines are summarized in detail, both protocols and implementation steps are discussed, and a toolkit is presented to help healthcare professionals.

This report describes how as a result of the opioid crisis children are being cared for by extended family members and friends. It makes recommendations to ensure that caregiver households receive needed support, including legal and financial assistance from government agencies, so that children can still thrive in the absence of their parents.

This is a website from the research center RAND that serves as a source for innovative research in opioid policy science. Tools and information on responses to the opioid crisis that target a wide range of stakeholders are provided, which includes a database of academic literature. 

This academic paper outlines a study investigating the extent to which illegal manufactured fentanyl (IMF) supply varies over time and geography, as well as how the price changes based on these factors. The author's found that since 2013, the IMF problem has become more deadly and diverse. 

This resource guide from SAMHSA explains that the central focus of a recovery-oriented systems of care (ROSC) is to create an infrastructure or system of care with the resources to effectively address the full range of substance use problems within communities. Recovery-oriented activities include providing a menu of traditional treatment services and alternative therapies, including peer recovery coaching, acupuncture, meditation, and music and art therapy.

According to this document, recovery support services, including employment assistance, child care, care management, and housing support, may enhance the engagement of individuals and their families in achieving and sustaining recovery.

This is a website from Abt Associates highlighting a series of reports that provide a scoping review of first responder-led programs designed to maximize diversion from the justice and emergency systems to treatment and community-based services, then presents a framework for considering the different types of programs for preventing crises or improving emergency responses for individuals with substance use disorder, severe mental illness, or those experiencing homelessness.