Policymakers and community leaders play an important role in addressing opioids in our communities. This page highlights the most recently added resources specifically targeting elected and appointed government officials and staff members, members of the law enforcement community and first responders, and employees and volunteers of organizations. These resources, identified with orange tiles, include policy roadmaps, implementation guides, toolkits, education materials, sample legislation and other materials that can help you design and implement effective programs to prevent and address the consequences of opioid crisis.
If you’d like to submit materials for inclusion consideration or suggest a future featured topic, please visit CLOUD’s call for submissions page.
Recovery Reinvented is an initiative of the North Dakota Behavioral Health Division led by North Dakota First Lady Kathryn Burgum who herself is in long term recovery for over 18 years. The goal of Recovery Reinvented is to eliminate the shame and stigma of addiction in North Dakota through education and promoting proven prevention, treatment and recovery approaches.
The Brandeis Opioid Resource Connector provides a curated collection of community-focused programs, tools, and resources to help policymakers and community leaders develop interventions to address the opioid crisis in their communities. The website includes information on over 160 program models that have been implemented across the country.
This collection addresses one of the most significant issues surrounding the opioid crisis: the sigma faced by people who suffer from addictions. The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine defines stigma as a range of negative attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that are associated with certain conditions such as addiction.
This philosophical and scientific exploration of understanding addiction and stigma explores various models explaining addictive behavior, and presents a model of “pragmatic determinism” that recognizes an individual’s genetic or social factors may contribute to the development of addiction while also acknowledging that empowering an individual’s ability to make choices in a compassionate and effective treatment program can also be essential for treatment and recovery.
This web-based opioid prevention toolkit from Oregon Health Authority’s Heal Safely campaign is intended to be used by community health workers and public health officials to help communities find safe non-opioid options for healing safely and addressing pain.
This website is the home page for the Harm Reduction Coalition’s training program on Understanding Drug-Related Stigma. The site includes information about obtaining a training as well as training materials, which are also included in CLOUD.
This web page summarizes a study that looked at the effects of language on attitudes towards people who use substances. The study offered participants two descriptions of individuals — a person who was a “substance abuser” or a person who “had a substance use disorder” – and then asked several questions about the participant’s impressions of these persons.
This toolkit is designed for people who want to engage in efforts to reduce addiction-related stigma. The toolkit can help addiction treatment professionals and community groups to create multi-component stigma prevention and stigma reduction campaigns.
This 2016 report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine reviewed evidence on how best to counter negative stigmatizing attitudes towards people with substance use disorders or mental health conditions.
This slide set presentation was developed to accompany the Harm Reduction Coalition’s training on Understanding Drug Related Stigma and Discrimination. For more information about the training, see the Harm Reduction Coalitions website at: https://harmreduction.org/issue-area/issue-drugs-drug-users/understanding-drug-related-stigma/.