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…

This is an academic paper that examines the design, early implementation, and results of the Washington State Hub and Spoke Model, built on prior approaches to increase capacity and improve the delivery system for medication treatment and support services for opioid use disorder.

This is an academic paper that gives an overview of an interprofessional inpatient addiction care team in an urban, safety-net hospital in San Francisco. Barriers to implementation and lessons learned are discussed. 

This is an informative report from the Bipartisan Policy Center that gives an overview of federal opioid funding, and where the money is going in the continuum of care. It also gives a breakdown by state with overviews of several selected states.  

This is a report from the Bipartisan Policy Center that tracks spending targeted to address the opioid crisis across the federal government for fiscal year 2019 and provides insight into how funds are being spent at the state and county level, with specific case studies on six states - Ohio,…

This report outlines how despite availability of effective treatments for opioid use disorder, lack of training can lead to clinicians under prescribing them. The Foundation for Opioid Resource Efforts emphasizes the importance of the hub and spoke model to expand the number of OUD providers,…

This is an academic paper that evaluated an intervention in Missouri to educate law enforcement and other first responders on the risks of fentanyl exposure, where misinformation has led to amplified fears of incidental exposure and possible delays in responding to overdoses. This pilot program…

This is a policy brief from the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice that reviews the evidence linking trauma and adverse childhood experiences to opioid use disorder. It also provides examples of trauma-informed prevention and treatment strategies, and describes innovative…

This is a report from the Centre of Excellence for Women's Health that gives guidance on providing "trauma-informed" services to people with opioid use disorder. Trauma-informed practice is an approach to care that integrates an understanding of trauma into all levels of care, system engagement…

This academic paper describes a policy scan done on the four rural states of Indiana, Maine, Missouri, and Colorado. The paper compared how each state has adapted its Medicaid program to reduce rural maternal opioid misuse. The data collected in the study will inform the best policy…