Investing in community health programs and designing opioid use disorder (OUD) public health interventions with families in children in mind will be important for closing key gaps in care, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.
Specifically, lapsing community health supports are making it difficult for parent caregivers with OUD to engage in evidence-based OUD and substance use disorder (SUD) care. Limited community health programming is also damaging to children whose parents or caregivers have OUD or SUD.
“The opioid epidemic is one of the largest public health crises in a generation, and it takes place against a backdrop of deep and growing structural inequality in the nation’s social, economic, and political landscapes,” the report authors began. “To date, most of the response to the opioid epidemic has focused on people directly affected by problem drug use and addiction.”