Substance Use Disorder And Addiction

Governors have long been at the forefront of efforts to prevent and treat opioid use disorder and substance use disorder, working with stakeholders to mount a comprehensive response to the opioid epidemic.

Since 2012, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices has supported states in their efforts to help prevent and treat substance use disorder. Over the years, NGA Health and NGA Public Safety and Legal Counsel have jointly worked with states to identify and implement evidenced based best practices related to substance use disorder. NGA focus areas include but are not limited to:

Sharing evidenced based prevention, treatment, and recovery strategies and programs;
Using data and evaluation in policy development;
Improving outcomes for targeted populations (justice-involved individuals, pregnant and parenting women, LGBTQIA+, people of color, and other historically underrepresented populations);
Expanding access to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD);
Identifying trends in polysubstance use and identifying comprehensive responses to addiction;
Addressing infectious diseases as a result of SUD/OUD;
Strategies to improve the treatment of individuals with co-occurring disorders; and
Increasing access to non-opioid management of chronic pain.

Meet Our Team

Marianne Gibson, Program Director, Substance Use and Mental Health
Dr. Elise T. Simonsen, Senior Policy Analyst, Public Safety And Legal Counsels
Lauren Dedon, Senior Legal Policy Advisor
Maria Kearl, Policy Analyst, Public Safety and Legal Counsels

Projects

No posts found.

Publications

Community Supervision and Treatment of Individuals With Substance Use Disorder

This policy brief highlights the common challenges and opportunities for governors and state officials to inform state and local policy development and improve outcomes for individuals with SUD who are ...
Read More

Expanding Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder in Corrections and Community Settings

This roadmap highlights existing state efforts and serves as a policy development tool for Governors and state officials seeking to improve coordination and bolster existing efforts across state agencies to ...
Read More

Supporting State Behavioral Health Systems During COVID-19 Response and Recovery

This paper identifies for Governors the key issues that are currently challenging state behavioral health systems, along with actions that state agencies may consider to support and sustain behavioral health ...
Read More

Expanding Access To Non-Opioid Management Of Chronic Pain

This report synthesizes the existing evidence base for non-opioid therapies, examines Medicaid coverage policies, and identifies barriers and opportunities for scaling evidence-based integrated pain management delivery systems. (View/Download) Executive Summary ...
Read More

Opioid and COVID-19 Related Resources

(View/Download) Relevant information and guidance for communities confronting opioids in the age of COVID-19 The Intersection of Two Pandemics: Addiction and COVID-19 Webinar The USC Schaeffer Center and the Institute ...
Read More

State Strategies to Improve the Use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs to Address Opioid and other Substance Use Disorders

(View/Download) Executive Summary States have implemented many different strategies to address opioid use disorder/substance use disorders (OUD/SUD) and promote safe prescribing practices. One of these strategies is maintaining prescription drug ...
Read More

Substance Use Disorder And Addiction Library

Lessons Learned in State Collaboration to Address Substance Use Disorder and Justice-Involved Individuals

This policy brief highlights lessons learned from collaborative efforts in Hawai‘i, Pennsylvania and West Virginia between SAAs and SSAs to address SUD issues within justice-involved populations. (Download) Executive Summary A ...
Read More

National Recovery Month – 2021

National Recovery Month is held each September to promote and support new evidence-based treatment and recovery practices, the emergence of a strong and proud recovery community, and the dedication of ...
Read More

Governors on Criminal Justice and Public Safety Issues

Governors’ 2021 State of the State addresses confirm that while the challenges evolve in shape and scale, public safety and criminal justice issues remain top priorities across the country. By ...
Read More

State of the States Opioid Survey and Analysis

Amidst a global pandemic that has challenged states’ capacities to respond to increasing overdose deaths, collecting and sharing information across partners to effectively respond to new challenges will be more ...
Read More

Community Supervision and Treatment of Individuals With Substance Use Disorder

Expanding Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder in Corrections and Community Settings

During this webinar, NGA and ACA provided an overview of a step-by-step guide for governors and state officials to expand access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) with the goal ...
Read More

Associations Release Roadmap on Strategies for Countering Opioid Misuse in Correctional Settings

As opioid overdoses continue to claim tens of thousands of American lives each year, the National Governors Association (NGA) and the American Correctional Association (ACA) released a roadmap outlining strategies ...
Read More

Expanding Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder in Corrections and Community Settings

Supporting State Behavioral Health Systems During COVID-19 Response and Recovery

Resources

Vital Signs on overdose disparities by race, ethnicity, and other important social determinants.
DOSE Dashboard includes monthly and annual nonfatal overdose data from syndromic surveillance systems in 42 states, including the District of Columbia. This represents the most up to date data that CDC’s DOSE system has available and is updated shortly after new data are made available each month. The dashboard provides data visualization that responsively adjusts to your selection of drug, state, month/year, age, and sex. 
SUDORS Dashboard includes comprehensive drug overdose data from 2020, from funded jurisdictions that met inclusion criteria. Participating jurisdictions provided data from death certificates and medical examiner/coroner reports (including scene findings, autopsy reports, and full postmortem toxicology findings). The dashboard provides a downloadable dataset that includes annual counts, percentages, and rates of drug overdose deaths per 100,000 persons.
Overdose Funding Snapshots are a useful repository for federal and state funding data. These pages contain a history of CDC’s overdose funding, major milestones, and an interactive map with clickable states featuring individual state investments and key examples of work therein.

Patient- and County-level Trends in Nonfatal Opioid-involved Overdose Emergency Medical Services Encounters, 491 Counties in 21 States, January 2018–March 2022: This report leverages very timely data on non-fatal opioid-involved EMS encounters using the Biospatial data. In 491 counties across 21 states, the rate of EMS encounters for nonfatal opioid-involved overdoses increased, on average, 4% quarterly during January 2018–March 2022. EMS encounter data involving suspected nonfatal opioid-involved overdose complements ED data and allows for near real-time analysis, which can inform public health response and prevention efforts.

CDC Feature: International Overdose Awareness Day: A Time to Remember and Take Action, CDC’s IOAD feature, presents vital overdose statistics, offers tips on recognizing signs of overdose, and provides informational resources.
A qualitative assessment of circumstances surrounding drug overdose deaths during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, SUDORS Data Brief: The latest SUDORS data brief presents a qualitative assessment of circumstances surrounding drug overdose deaths during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably physical and mental impacts of the pandemic and missed touchpoints or opportunities for intervention. It is critical to expand SUD screening, link persons into care and treatment, retain persons in SUD treatment, and expand telehealth during emergencies to identify and provide services to persons at increased risk of overdose.