Inside INdiana Business is reporting that as part of the ongoing Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge initiative, Indiana University researchers have released a series of recommendations designed to reduce the effects of the state’s opioid epidemic. The report includes strategies for local, state and federal government officials involving: prioritizing harm reduction, removing legal impediments that hold up effective responses and investing in more and better evidence-based treatment services.
In February, IU detailed the first 16 projects related to the initiative. The Addictions Crisis initiative is the $50 million third leg of the initiative. Work on the report was led by IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law William S. and Christine S. Hall Center for Law and Health Executive Director Nicholas Terry, IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI professor of health policy management Ross Silverman and IU Grand Challenges Fellow at the McKinney School of Law Aila Hoss. They compiled the report using insight from stakeholders with community agencies, the health care industry, law enforcement and court and government officials.
Terry says “it is vital that policymakers put evidence-based harm reduction and treatments at the center of our policy discussion in order to create meaningful progress toward solving this epidemic. After extensive research, we believe these recommendations will be most readily implementable and impactful to the communities that adopt them. These are necessary changes. The reality is that some current laws and policies are barriers to the implementation of effective interventions.”
You can connect to more about the project by clicking here.