With drug overdose deaths reaching record numbers, policymakers and other stakeholders must increase their efforts to end the nation’s drug overdose epidemic with targeted, evidence-based interventions and emerging best practices.

The American Medical Association and Manatt Health’s 2022 Toolkit builds on a 2020 national policy roadmap, providing guidance to states on removing barriers to evidence-based patient care. The toolkit highlights actionable resources states can use to take specific actions in six policy areas:

1. Increase access to evidence-based treatments to help patients with a substance use disorder (SUD).
2. Ensure access to addiction medicine specialists, psychiatrists and other trained physicians.
3. Enforce mental health and SUD parity laws.
4. Improve access to multidisciplinary, multimodal care for patients with pain.
5. Expand harm reduction efforts to reduce death and disease.
6. Improve monitoring and evaluation.

In addition to the above six major policy areas, this toolkit also identifies key funding streams and opportunities, as well as actions that can be taken to ensure funds are spent on ending the epidemic.

To download the toolkit, click here.