Senator Outlined Three-Pronged Approach at Cleveland City Club through: 1. Education And Prevention, 2. Treatment, 3. Recovery; Announced New Legislation to Address Workforce Shortage Created by Addiction Crisis
1. Education and Prevention,
2. Treatment, and
3. Recovery.
Brown outlined lessons learned from past successful public health campaigns to combat everything from Ebola to tobacco usage, AIDS and heart disease.
"This is a public health emergency. Today, I'm calling for a comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained public health campaign to fight it through education and prevention, treatment, and recovery. We cannot accept that life expectancy will continue to decline. That families will continue to be torn apart. That entire communities will be written off. And we don't have to. We can take the lessons of the past and apply them to the opioid crisis today," Brown said.
"We need a full-scale, comprehensive, coordinated public health campaign, designed by experts at the
Brown also announced new, bipartisan legislation to address the workforce shortages created by the addiction epidemic. Brown developed the bill after hearing from mayors across
Brown's bill will combine existing grant programs at the
"We already have federal grant programs that support addiction treatment. And we have programs that fund workforce training. We know these programs can be successful separately, but this crisis requires them to work together," Brown said.
Brown also discussed the need to stop deadly synthetic drugs like fentanyl from entering the border. Brown's INTERDICT Act, which
Brown helped secure opioid funding that will specifically prioritize states like
Today, Brown called for:
EDUCATION AND PREVENTION
"Drug companies must be held accountable. There is no reason they should be able to advertise addictive substances directly to patients, much less get a tax credit for it. We held big tobacco accountable for its past abuses. Pharmaceutical companies played a role in fueling this crisis and they are going to have to play a role in solving it." - Brown
* Holding drug companies and others across the supply chain accountable.
* A targeted public ad campaign modeled off of successful efforts against tobacco. Brown said any ad campaign must be targeted and tested to ensure it is effective.
* Greater investment in public-private partnerships to develop safe, non-addictive pain treatments, combined with policies to encourage doctors to prescribe alternative treatments and require insurance companies to cover them.
* Better tracking of opioid addiction data that can be used to help target and prevent addiction.
TREATMENT
"Of course, no matter how much education and prevention we do, some people will become addicted. We have to make it just as easy for Ohioans to seek treatment as it is to get opioids." - Brown
* Investing in research and development to ensure more Medication Assisted Treatment options, allowing more doctors to prescribe them, and requiring insurance companies to cover them.
* Making more treatment beds available by lifting the Medicaid 16 bed rule that keeps Ohioans from getting treatment. Brown has a bipartisan bill with
* Expanding successful programs in
* Funding community health centers and community mental health centers, as well as other providers across the health care safety net, to ensure they have the tools they need to meet demand for treatment and protecting the Medicaid expansion so patients can access treatment.
RECOVERY
"If we do this right, hundreds of thousands more Americans will never use an opioid. But there will be hundreds of thousands more who have used opioids, but whose lives are not lost or ruined, who are living with and managing their addiction." - Brown
* Addressing opioid addiction like a chronic condition we can manage, similar to how we manage heart disease, including making long-term treatment and recovery supports available.
* Encouraging doctors to screen for struggles with addiction or a family history of addiction the same way they screen for heart disease or allergies.
* Ending professionally-induced relapses, by screening patients for addiction before prescribing pain medication following surgeries and other treatments.
Read this original document at: https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/brown-calls-for-full-scale-public-health-campaign-to-fight-opioid-epidemic
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