The Brandeis Opioid Resource Connector serves community stakeholders working to combat the opioid epidemic. It is a product of the Brandeis Opioid Policy Research Collaborative.
The heart of the Brandeis Opioid Resource Connector is our curated list of Program Models that address the many aspects of the opioid crisis.
Successful responses to the opioid crisis involve coordination among agencies and stakeholders within a community, ensuring that essential interventions across the continuum of care are implemented with available resources.
Understanding the numbers behind the opioid epidemic, and demonstrating how it affects a community, are critical steps in determining what approaches should be prioritized, and in informing local efforts.
This section contains links to a curated list of external resources related to actionable responses to the opioid crisis.
An important step in countering the opioid crisis is to prevent new cases.
Prevention often includes providing treatment providers, educators, parents, and potential substance users with the knowledge and skills they need to prevent harmful behaviors.
Research indicates that comprehensive, effective treatment for opioid use disorder increases one’s chances of wellness.
There is a range of evidence-based approaches from FDA-approved medications to cognitive-behavioral interventions to mutual aid groups. Treatment planning should be tailored to the individual.
We know that opioid use disorder can be a chronic condition and recurrence is common. Recovery is the process by which people sustain wellness by focusing on improving one’s health, sense of purpose, and connection with community.
Harm reduction aims to reduce the adverse health, economic, and social consequences of substance use. Effective harm reduction approaches are designed to be practical, feasible, and safe.
This study examined the state of the literature on the effectiveness of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) delivered in prisons and jails on community substance use treatment engagement, opioid use, recidivism, and health risk behaviors following release from incarceration.
The results obtained provide the first meta-analytic summary of MOUD (methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone) delivered in correctional settings and support the use of MOUD.
This peer-reviewed paper is an adequate summary of the effectiveness of brief interventions in the emergency department for alcohol use disorder and substance use disorder, with a specific section on opioid use disorder.
This is a report from the Maryland Hospital Association that provides recommendations to hospitals on protocols in place for patients treated for an overdose or identified as having a substance use disorder. These protocols include universal screening, naloxone access, facilitated referrals, and peer recovery coaches.
This is an academic paper that provides a scoping review of post-overdose responses implemented by emergency medical services (EMS). 27 programs were identified with themes including providing harm reduction in the community, integration with law enforcement, innovative community outreach, and inclusion of peer support.
This report is published by the Legal Action Center and describes evidence-based practices for providing substance use disorder care and how they are successfully implemented or not implemented in different hospital emergency department settings. The report explains possible reasons for certain departments not adopting proper substance use disorder care practices and how this worsens existing barriers to those seeking care, and could even be a violation of certain federal laws regarding substance use disorder and discrimination.
This is a toolkit from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce for employers. There is an online course, divided into five modules, that gives an overview of the legal and operational issues an employer must consider in dealing with an employee’s use of opioids and other substances, as well as additional resources.
This is a report from the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at UPenn that provides four recommendations for the federal government to consider in addressing the opioid crisis in the domains of cautious opioid prescribing, treatment and recovery services, harm reduction strategies, and efficient distribution of money from opioid litigation.
This is a report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse that provides proven and promising strategies from a range of evidence-based resources, thus offering a clear and concise set of actions that states can take. Its aim is to help state policymakers understand what a public health approach looks like and how best to implement one.
This document seeks to arm policymakers with the information they need to replace misinformation and stigma with research-based facts and practical, health-based solutions. There is a wide array of existing state initiatives highlighted.
This is a report from SAMHSA that gives an overview of HEALing Communities Study and how this project engaged community coalitions. This report's purpose is to help build and sustain community coalitions to address the opioid crisis.
This is an academic paper that reviews the literature on including people who use drugs (PWUD) as part of research, intervention development and implementation, and policy advocacy. The barriers of stigma and discrimination must be addressed to improve engagement of PWUD in the decision-making process, though this population brings a critical skill set and unique perspective to the table.
This academic paper is a review that presents strategies to improve opioid use disorder treatment and recovery with a focus on engineering approaches grounded in systems thinking. Specifically, this paper describes how the field of engineering can play an important supporting role in the opioid crisis through informing community-based approaches on the development, testing, and implementation of multifaceted innovative solutions.
This academic paper summarizes a peer recovery support program to engage individuals using opioids and link them with a range of services. Results show that this program effectively engaged and linked individuals to mental health and treatment services.
