This article presents a new conceptual framework for understanding the opioid crisis by describing factors that escalate risk for drug use, addiction, and overdose and proposes six policy strategies to address the epidemic’s root causes and deescalate risk. The framework promotes a comprehensive approach that recognizes the social determinants of health and shifts public policy from punishment to a public health approach. Continue reading
Resource Tag: Overdose Prevention
Naloxone distribution
Rapid response teams
Farm Town Strong
Farm Town Strong provides resources to assist farm and ranch communities address the opioid crisis from the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union. The website includes results of a survey describing farm and ranch community perceptions of the opioid crisis as well as links to informational and support hotlines, a substance use disorder treatment locator, information about prevention and safe mediation disposal. Continue reading
Naloxone Training Video
This 4 minute video from the Baltimore Department of Health explains how to recognize an overdose and how to administer Naloxone to reverse the overdose. Part of Baltimore City’s Don’t Die campaign. Continue reading
What is Naloxone?
This 3 minute video from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows how Naloxone works to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The video explains the science behind how opioids work in the body and how Naloxone works to reverse opioid overdose. Continue reading
Reverse Overdose Oregon
Reverse Overdose Oregon’s website provides information for patients, caregivers and citizens on obtaining and learning how to use naloxone to reverse opioid overdose. It also includes employee training materials, a media guide and includes Spanish language resources. Continue reading
Stop Overdose
This website from the University of Washington Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute is devoted to helping individuals and communities prevent and respond to opioid overdose in the state. Continue reading

COVID-19
UPDATED November 15, 2020:
The COVID-19 public health emergency is particularly challenging for people in treatment for substance use disorder, people in recovery, and people who use drugs. This collection features educational resources that can be adapted for local settings, specific guidance on harm reduction, recovery housing and providing peer support services during the pandemic, and links to websites that provide high-quality information, data, and/or examples for local communities to adopt. Continue reading
Be Prepared: Develop an Overdose Response Plan
This 5 minute video titled “Be Prepared: Develop an Overdose Response Plan” from a team of clinicians at Boston Medical Center’s Grayken Center for Addiction describes the need for health care facilities to develop an overdose response plan to address overdoses that might occur in the facility. Continue reading

Public Libraries and the Opioid Crisis
The Public Library Association and OCLC, a global library cooperative, produced these resources to help libraries develop polices and programs to address the opioid crisis in their communities. This collection consists of 3 reports: Continue reading
Ohio Addiction Policy Inventory and Scorecard: Overdose Reversal and Other Forms of Harm Reduction
This 2018 report from the Ohio Health Policy Institute describes policy changes implemented between 2013 and 2018 to address overdose reversal and other harm reduction efforts. The report includes a scorecard indicating the extent Ohio is implementing evidence-based harm reduction strategies and offers suggestions for policy improvements. Continue reading