This is a policy brief from Carnevale Associates that discusses the short- and long-term need for substance use prevention and offers recommendations on how prevention professionals can safely continue work during the coronavirus pandemic. 

This brief from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) presents key takeaway messages from a mixed-methods study examining how substance use affects child welfare systems across the country. It highlights that, generally, counties with higher overdose death and drug hospitalization rates have higher caseload rates.

This document also explains that child welfare agencies and their community partners are struggling to meet families’ needs partially secondary to substance use and that family-friendly treatment options are limited. Finally, the brief emphasizes that caseworkers, courts, and other providers often misunderstand how treatment works and lack guidelines on how to incorporate it into child welfare practice. 

This is a report from the Urban Institute that summarized interviews with national experts and site visits to two Appalachian communities on the impact of the opioid crisis on children and families. The problems that systems face to address the opioid crisis, promising programs and approaches, and policy implications are provided. 

This 2013 SAMHSA report describes the core elements of screening, brief intervention, brief treatment, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) programs and provides general administrative and managerial information relevant to implementing SBIRT services, including: SBIRT effectiveness; implementation models; challenges and barriers to implementation; issues of cost and sustainability; and real-life program anecdotes and case studies.

This is a report from the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) that explores innovative approaches Louisiana, New York, and West Virginia have taken to address co-occurring HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) infections and substance use disorder (SUD) – providing both rural and urban perspectives – and highlights their resourceful use of funding streams, leveraging of data, and advancing community readiness.

This is an academic paper that gives a review on primary prevention interventions delivered during childhood and adolescence to reduce individuals’ later risk for opioid and other drug use disorders. Different types of evidence-based prevention strategies are discussed. 

This is an academic paper that documents the currently available opioid-related smartphone apps and reviews past and existing technology solutions that address opioid use disorder (OUD), including educational apps for prescribers, wearable sensors, and GPS locator apps. 

This is an academic paper that provides a scoping review of policies that states have implemented to prevent opioid misuse and opioid use disorder, such as prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP), pain clinic laws, and laws restricting opioid prescribing. The evidence for these policies is discussed. 

Given that the construction industry is at much higher risk for overdose, this is a website that provides a free opioid awareness training program tailored to employers and employees in this industry but can be used by any industry, and includes PowerPoint slides, a facilitator guide, participant handouts, and links to helpful resources specific to employers. 

This is a report from Children and Family Futures that defines and provides examples of collaborative practice in each of the ten system linkage elements, focused in the child welfare, substance use treatment, and juvenile court dependency systems. State and community collaborative groups can use this information to guide their own efforts to implement collaborative practice in their own communities.

This is a report using the Communities That Care (CTC) model to combat risky youth behaviors. In rural western Massachusetts, a CRC coalition with members from many sectors of the community has been working for more than a decade to support youth well-being and reduce youth substance use. In that time, youth drinking, cigarette smoking, and marijuana use have declined substantially, as have targeted risk factors underlying problem behaviors.

This report summarizes the experience of the CTC Coalition of Franklin County and the North Quabbin region, providing a replicable example of how a collaboration involving health care and community partners can successfully create measurable, positive changes in community health.

This is an article from the CDC that discusses how people with substance use disorder are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic, with an emphasis on the likely outcome that economic disruptions will increase substance use. The article highlights what is being done so far and has links to helpful resources.