OUD Treatment for Adolescents, the Behavioral Health Workforce, and More

A New Mental Health Hotline Is Coming. We Need to Do Right by It.

Alicia Sparks provides insights about the upcoming launch of the national crisis hotline, the challenges it faces, and the benefits it will bring to help address mental health needs.

AHRQ’s Six Building Blocks Toolkit Helps Clinics Improve Opioid Prescribing

In partnership with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, we developed a How-To-Implement Toolkit for healthcare providers treating patients with chronic pain. The evidence-based resource is a result of the Six Building Blocks program, which aims to improve opioid management in primary care.

Satisfaction and Mental Health Outcomes Associated with a Large Regional Helpline

Abt surveyed users of NYC Well, a 24/7 behavioral health helpline, to assess their experiences with using the service as well as changes in mental health outcomes, including psychological distress, over time. The study found that behavioral health helplines can offer beneficial services to diverse populations, complementing the formal behavioral healthcare system.

Reducing Opioid Stigma for Pregnant and Parenting People

Stigma and fragmented care make it hard for people to access and remain in opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment. The Maternal Opioid Misuse (MOM) Model from CMS, an integrated care approach, focuses on reducing these barriers and improving health outcomes. Find out what Abt and our partners are learning from the eight states implementing the model.

Compelling News & Research from the Field

American Indian tribes have reached a new opioid settlement with J. & J. and distributors. The settlement will provide critical resources to tribal communities to help address the opioid crisis, which has disproportionately affected hundreds of tribes.

A study from the National Institutes of Health showed that men in a rural jail who received medication to treat opioid use disorder had a reduced likelihood of reincarceration. The results are promising and will be replicated in larger, more diverse populations.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking new steps to advance the development of non-addictive alternatives to opioids to manage acute pain and has issued draft guidance to companies developing non-opioid analgesics for acute pain.

A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found growing disparities in overdose mortality from opioids and stimulants, with deaths among Black Americans increasing at more than three times the rate as non-Hispanic White people.

The CDC is in the process of updating and expanding the 2016 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain and is taking public comments through April 11, 2022.

In San Francisco, preliminary data suggest that accidental drug overdose deaths decreased from 2020 to 2021. Pivoting to provide access to care during the pandemic, including moving services online,

may have made help more accessible.

Findings published in JAMA Network Open suggest a need for ongoing efforts to improve access to evidence-based opioid overdose prevention strategies and treatment for people experiencing homelessness.