In “Un-burying the lead: Public health tools are the key to beating the opioid epidemic” (PDF), Brookings nonresident senior fellow Dayna Bowen Matthew looks at the report’s recommendations and draws parallels between today’s crisis and other historic drug epidemics, to examine the public health lessons policymakers can learn.

Six recommend next steps to address these social determinants of the opioid crisis, Matthew suggests policymakers:

  • Utilize Medicaid to reimburse supportive housing programs that co-locate employment, education, and health services.
  • Promote and finance two-generation, family-centered treatment and support for children under foster and kinship care.
  • Involve community leaders in designing preventive systems for younger children to promote healthy behaviors, social skills and community opportunities.
  • Broaden public health-based approaches to re-build workforce capacity among victims of past drug epidemics.
  • Extend the benefits of public health-based interventions to individuals who were burdened by criminal justice rather than public health approaches to the disease of addiction during America’s earlier opioid crisis.
  • Strengthen supports for public housing providers to avoid eviction when residents are amenable to treatment for opioid addiction.

Read the full article about beating the opioid epidemic by Dayna Bowen Matthew at Brookings.