Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • EMS workers are on the front lines of the opioid epidemic. Here's how they cope.

    Drug users aren’t the only ones affected by the opioid crisis—first responders feel the effects, too. Critical Incident Stress Management is a program that gives them tools for coping with the emotional toll of working on the front lines of the crisis. The program offers training and peer groups so overworked responders can bear up under job stress.

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  • How tough-on-crime Texas lowered its prison population and what Oklahoma can learn from it

    In 2007, Texas prisons were near capacity and half a billion dollars was needed to build three new prisons. Instead, the state became a model for conservative-led criminal sentencing reform by changing a host of laws to send many fewer people to prison in the first place. By spending half of the savings on drug and alcohol treatment, among other services, the state focused on solving people's underlying problems rather than always punishing behavior after the fact.

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  • Sending Letters About Their Patients' Overdoses Changes Doctors' Prescribing Habits

    San Diego area physicians are now receiving a letter if one of their patients dies of an opioid overdose. The goal of this new project is to remind doctors of the impact of their actions and lower opioid prescribing rates.

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  • 'A perfect circle of helping': 3 nonprofits join forces to feed people in Kensington

    In Philadelphia, a collaboration between three nonprofits is providing 500 free lunches, both filling a gap in nonprofit service on Friday afternoons and giving those recently entered into recovery for addiction a task and sense of purpose. How does it work? The Sunday LOVE Project, a hunger nonprofit, delivers extra food to First Stop Recovery, an addiction recovery center, where residents assemble and pack lunches. Those lunches are then delivered to people with addictions at Prevention Point Philadelphia.

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  • Instead of jail, “Hope Not Handcuffs” gets people into addiction treatment

    In Michigan, the Hope Not Handcuffs Initiative has partnered with local police departments to ensure that people with addictions are given support and treatment instead of being sent to jail. Ninety-eight percent of people are placed in a treatment center within two hours of their arrival at a participating police station; they estimate they've placed around 1500 people in their 18 months of operation.

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  • How Colleges Can Support Students Recovering from Substance Abuse

    Some universities are helping students stay sober. Institutions like Rutgers, Texas Tech, and University of Michigan offer counseling, support groups, and even recovery houses. Research shows these programs are overwhelmingly successful. “They have low relapse rates, higher GPAs than average, and are more likely to stay in college and graduate. In fact, they reported up to 95 percent of participating students are able to sustain their sobriety while attending school.”

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  • America's doctors can beat the opioid epidemic. Here's how to get them on board.

    Primary care providers often decline to learn how to treat opioid addiction because it takes too much time and specialization—it's a complex disease. But ECHO, a New Mexico initiative that links primary care providers with a community of specialists and colleagues, empowers doctors with access to knowledge that allows them to treat tough patients. ECHO began as a resource for Hepatitis C and was so effective, they expanded it for opioid addiction, For some doctors, it breaks down the barrier to getting a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine, am opioid treatment.

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  • Yoga, herbs and sunshine: New Zealand opens 'humane' jail for most violent inmates

    New Zealand is opening a new prison for its most dangerous inmates, but it will feature more space and holistic therapies in the vein of prisons in Scandinavia, Belgium and Germany. The majority of people in New Zealand's prisons have a mental illness or addiction diagnosis and more than half are Maori. The new facility will focus on helping people eventually reintegrate back into the community and officials hope this will curtail the steadily rising incarceration rates in the country.

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  • Now Hiring: A Company Offers Drug Treatment And A Job To Addicted Applicants

    Strapped for labor, a rural company decided that they wouldn't fire employees who failed drugs tests—they'd help them get better. Instead of punishing addicted employees, the Belden Electric Wire Factory pays for them to get treatment. Applicants who fail the drug test are promised a job if they complete treatment as well. Workers support each other on the job another's a sense of motivation for a better future.

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  • The Citizens Project

    In New Haven, a two-decades long experiment in giving community to and promoting empowerment for people who have been in the criminal justice system or mental health treatment services has shown a decrease in drug use and an increase in general quality of life. The idea - that people who have isolated/alienated by a system need to be empowered as citizens to successfully re-integrate - is taking hold in other cities, including Philadelphia.

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