Today, a non-partisan group called Advocates for Opioid Recovery (AOR) is launching an aggressive social media campaign around the hashtag #LetsTrumpAddiction. The effort intends to draw President Trump’s attention to the urgent national need for an evidence-based treatment system for opioid addiction.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the opioid epidemic takes 91 American lives every day. It’s increasingly clear that we “cannot incarcerate our way out of a public health crisis.” axialHealthcare is committed to positively impacting the opioid epidemic through effective care and fully supports AOR’s goal of treating people suffering from opioid addiction as patients, not criminals.
Last fall, axial sponsored forums in West Virginia and Tennessee on solutions for the opioid crisis. A recurring theme was the need for expanded treatment access to replace ineffective law enforcement solutions. Currently, the behavioral health community lacks the space and the resources to adequately address the number of people suffering from opioid addiction. Federal funding and support can help scale treatment facilities to meet need, fully identify an evidence-based approach to opioid addiction treatment, and expand access to medication-assisted treatment from qualified physicians.
At axialHealthcare, we’re primarily focused on providing safe and effective pain care through practitioner education, engagement, and support. Since 4 out of 5 heroin users start with prescription opioids, prevention is a crucial component of the solution. For example, a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that emergency room patients treated by doctors who frequently prescribe opioids are more likely to stay on opioids long-term. axial’s capabilities first identify those practitioners who overprescribe opioids. Then we provide feedback, educational intervention, and evidence-based guidance to better treat patients in pain and prevent long-term opioid use that leads to escalating MED, increased utilization of healthcare services, and—for some long-term opioid users—the progression to opioid use disorder (OUD).
Providing effective medical treatment to those suffering from opioid addiction means acknowledging this epidemic as the public health crisis it is. Join the campaign and #LetsTrumpAddiction together.