Recovery

This toolkit is for justice and public safety practitioners planning to implement peer support services in law enforcement agencies, court-based programs, community supervision agencies, and correctional settings. Each section of the toolkit offers critical questions to address during the planning and implementation phase, case studies, tools, and resources drawn from the latest research, subject matter experts, and experiences from diverse settings across the United States....

This document provides jail and prison administrators, program managers, medical staff in correctional settings, and reentry staff with a performance management framework to monitor medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in correctional settings....

In October 2022, Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services (DHS), in conjunction with the state’s department of justice (DOJ) and the Office of Governor Tony Ever announced the launch of the Real Talks campaign to help address the rise in substance use in the state. In recent years, much like the rest of the country, Wisconsin has seen a sizable increase in opioid-related deaths. In fact, between 2018 and 2020, the number of opioid-related deaths increased by 46.7 percent. In addition, alcohol misuse continues to be a problem. Data from DHS indicates that adults in the state rank third in the United States for alcohol use. Real Talks Wisconsin is part of a series of DHS programs aimed at preventing and reducing substance use or abuse within the state. Real Talks discusses community prevention programs and encourages harm reduction programs, such as free access to emergency opioid antagonists....

Through the use of medications for addiction treatment (MAT), an individual’s substance use, withdrawal symptoms, and the physiological and psychological cravings can be controlled, enabling the person to begin treatment while in a correctional facility and be released as a person in, or on his or her way to, recovery. Research shows that that the use of MAT for Opioid Use Disorder in correctional settings is a cost-effective and life-saving intervention....

Recovery residences provide a sober, safe, and healthy living environment that promotes recovery from alcohol and other drug use and associated problems. These residences are commonly referred to by a number of names, including sober living houses, sober living environments, and recovery homes, and their primary purpose is to provide a home-like environment for individuals in recovery from substance use disorder to help sustain that recovery....

The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented public health emergency throughout the world, prompting providers to turn to telehealth to provide necessary health care to patients at a distance. This paper analyzes the current state of telehealth services at the federal and state levels, as well as the benefits and limitations of telehealth technology use. It also offers public policy recommendations to improve telehealth services in the United States....

The restaurant industry has been particularly impacted by the opioid epidemic with, for example, ten percent of food service workers dying from opioid overdoses in the State of Delaware.[1] This sobering statistic prompted the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) to launch the Restaurant Accolade Program (the Program), which trains all restaurant staff and owners in the state on how to identify, respond to, and reverse an opioid overdose and helps food establishments draft policies that support employees and patrons with substance use disorders (SUDs). The Office of Health Crisis Response (OCHR) within DPH conducts the training and education....

In September 2021, Georgetown University Law Center convened an Opioid Litigation Summit. This convening brought together numerous experts to discuss legal, administrative, and programmatic strategies needed to optimize the impact of proceeds from the opioid litigation. The themes described in this brief emerged from the Summit and can be applied to the opioid litigation as well as future mass tort litigation to address public health crises....

When Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro learned that approximately 15 citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania die each day from an overdose, he took action. As a result, in May of 2018, he launched the Law Enforcement Treatment Initiative (LETI) to connect individuals suffering with a substance use disorder (SUD) to treatment resources....

The Model Law Enforcement and Other First Responder Deflection Act, drafted in collaboration with the Police, Treatment, and Community Collaborative (PTACC), encourages the use and establishment of deflection programs on the state level. Specifically, the model act (1) authorizes law enforcement and other first responders to develop and implement collaborative deflection programs that provide proactive policing to assist individuals who are at risk; (2) offers pathways to treatment, recovery services, housing, medication for addiction treatment, whole family services, and other needed supports; (3) requires deflection programs to have certain threshold elements to be eligible to receive grant funding; and (4) requires agencies establishing deflection programs to develop comprehensive memoranda of understanding in conjunction with, and agreed to by, all deflection program partners....