This is a detailed presentation from Dr. Joseph Liberto of the Veterans Affairs (VA) Maryland Health Care System that gives the epidemiology of opioid use and opioid use disorder (OUD) among veterans, provides guidance on how to assess veterans for OUD, and highlights VA initiatives to address…

This is a white paper from Gallagher that serves as an educational document for employers to proactively address opioid misuse in the workplace, primarily through educating the workforce, enacting the right policies, and managing benefits. 

This is a 2017 Congressional Research Service report describing which federal agencies are funding opioid-related programs.

This is an article in the Health Affairs Blog that summarizes national and state strategies to address the opioid crisis and describe further reforms needed to tailor these efforts to teens and young adults, mostly related to payment and delivery reform. 

This is a report from the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center targeting the impact of the opioid crisis on American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AI/AN). The complicated nature of the opioid crisis is discussed and potential solutions are made in this document. 

This report from Johns Hopkins contains specific, proven recommendations for how to most effectively combat the opioid crisis –from allowing physicians to more effectively treat those suffering from addiction; to expanding coverage and accessibility of opioid overdose reversal drugs like…

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…