Building on four years of groundbreaking work, the 911爆料网 Academy of Medicine (NAM)鈥檚 renamed Action Collaborative on Combatting Substance Use and Opioid Crises will broaden its efforts to advance a more sustainable and equitable response to the nation鈥檚 evolving overdose and broader substance use crisis.
In response to the ongoing and ever-changing overdose crisis, the 911爆料网 Academy of Medicine鈥檚 (NAM) Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic has identified the need for multi-sectoral solutions to address the complex causes of overdose and addiction more broadly. To reflect this shift in focus, the Action Collaborative has been renamed the Action Collaborative on Combatting Substance Use and Opioid Crises and has developed an updated strategy to catalyze comprehensive response efforts for the rapidly changing landscape of overdose and substance misuse in our nation.
Over time, the substances contributing to overdose and addiction have evolved. Today, the country鈥檚 overdose crisis involves multiple substances, particularly synthetic opioids mixed with additional substances. The Action Collaborative was founded in 2018 to catalyze cohesive and collective action in response to the nation鈥檚 opioid epidemic. Building on its efforts from Phases I and II of its work, the group will now focus on efforts needed to tackle the unique challenges of this evolving and complex public health problem. As has been the case from the Action Collaborative鈥檚 inception, its work will require the commitment of public, private, and non-profit stakeholders. Each has enormous contributions to make in developing, curating, and implementing multi-sector solutions that can improve outcomes for affected individuals, families, and communities.
鈥淭he Action Collaborative has uniquely aligned more than 80 key players and 100 network organizations to facilitate a cohesive, systems-based response to the opioid crisis. We have made important progress in informing guidelines to opioid prescription and pain management, pivotal federal policies on harm reduction, modern methadone regulations to improve access to care, a framework of interprofessional minimum competencies to better prepare health professions, and much more,鈥 said NAM President Victor J. Dzau. 鈥淚 look forward to this next iteration of our work, allowing us to address the rapidly changing landscape of the crisis with the increase in illicit fentanyl and xylazine, the interplay of the impact of COVID-19, among other complex factors surrounding substance use disorders.”
The substance use epidemic is one of the most significant public health challenges of our time. Since the start of the opioid crisis, more than 932,000 people have died from a drug overdose. 聽Over 250 lives are lost daily due to overdose, with disproportionate mortality numbers among historically marginalized groups. In addition to the overall mortality numbers, non-fatal overdoses are alarmingly high. Overall, the crisis touches a wide range of the U.S. population, requiring novel response strategies with broad reach.
In its Phase III work, the Action Collaborative will use its platform and convening power to expand its mandate beyond opioids to address substance use more generally and particularly, the evolving interplay of substance and overdose as public health challenges. The work will focus on three key elements in support of developing a sustainable response effort: advancing health equity, catalyzing data-driven solutions, and building a broad-based substance use disorder (SUD) framework designed to adapt and proactively address the ever-changing dynamics of substance use.
To better understand the upstream drivers of this crisis, a targeted focus on health equity is integral. The Action Collaborative鈥檚 work will seek to address social factors that increase the risk and vulnerability of certain populations to experience overdose and/or develop addiction.
The Action Collaborative鈥檚 efforts will utilize public health interventions and data science to inform the development of systems solutions across high-impact priority areas. Key areas for action include data and research, prevention, health professional education and training, clinical practice, health systems, payment, and the regulatory environment.
In addition to its new activities, the Action Collaborative will draw on its prior work to produce an SUD framework as a culminating deliverable. The Framework will be grounded in health equity principles and embrace a population health approach to SUDs while outlining the critical elements needed for a systems response to the substance use crisis more generally. The Framework will serve as a resource that can guide response efforts for future substance use epidemics.
Collectively, the Phase III work of the Action Collaborative will lead a foundational shift in the field to catalyze the development of forward-looking practices, programs, and policies that will better meet the needs of those most impacted by this devastating crisis and improve outcomes for all. Learn more here.
