Press Release - ONDCP May Newsletter: Prevention Week, the Importance of First Responders, and International Collaboration

Champions Addressing the Opioid Epidemic through Hospitals

Hospitals are on the front lines of our efforts to address the national opioid crisis. ONDCP has recently engaged with a number of innovators and pioneers who are developing effective hospital-based approaches to the epidemic. These include:

• Dr. Gail D'Onofrio, who developed and evaluated protocols for buprenorphine induction in the emergency department and linkage with primary care at Yale New Haven Hospital. Dr. D'Onofrio is currently leading a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded clinical trial replicating the protocol in EDs in Baltimore, Cincinnati, New York City, and Seattle. More information is available here.
• Dr. Edward Bernstein of Boston Medical Center, who recently launched the Faster Paths to Treatment program, an opioid-focused urgent care service coordination unit for people who have overdosed or have an opioid use disorder (OUD). This program is funded by the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services.
• Dr. Traci Green of Boston University and Michelle Harter of Anchor Recovery Community Centers, who launched the AnchorED, a project through which recovery coaches from Anchor Recovery Community Centers are available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week to engage overdose survivors in all Rhode Island hospital emergency departments. ONDCP continues to track progress of this project as it expands to include the Anchor MORE (Mobile Outreach) program, which deploys peer recovery coaches from Anchor Recovery Community Centers out into the community.  Champions Addressing the Opioid Epidemic through Hospitals

  Hospitals are on the front lines of our efforts to address the national opioid crisis. ONDCP has recently engaged with a number of innovators and pioneers who are developing effective hospital-based approaches to the epidemic. These include:

• Dr. Gail D'Onofrio, who developed and evaluated protocols for buprenorphine induction in the emergency department and linkage with primary care at Yale New Haven Hospital. Dr. D'Onofrio is currently leading a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded clinical trial replicating the protocol in EDs in Baltimore, Cincinnati, New York City, and Seattle. More information is available here.
• Dr. Edward Bernstein of Boston Medical Center, who recently launched the Faster Paths to Treatment program, an opioid-focused urgent care service coordination unit for people who have overdosed or have an opioid use disorder (OUD). This program is funded by the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services.
• Dr. Traci Green of Boston University and Michelle Harter of Anchor Recovery Community Centers , who launched the AnchorED, a project through which recovery coaches from Anchor Recovery Community Centers are available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week to engage overdose survivors in all Rhode Island hospital emergency departments. ONDCP continues to track progress of this project as it expands to include the Anchor MORE (Mobile Outreach) program, which deploys peer recovery coaches from Anchor Recovery Community Centers out into the community.

Innovative Approaches to Recovery at Local Fire Departments




ONDCP Acting Director Richard Baum was recently briefed by the creators of two innovative fire department-led initiatives to address the opioid epidemic. Safe Station, a program developed in May 2016 by the City of Manchester, New Hampshire, welcomes people seeking help for addiction at any of the city's 10 fire stations, where they will be given a brief medical assessment to determine if hospitalization is required and handed off to a recovery coach or case manager for direct linkage to treatment. Within its first year of operation, the program has helped over 1,600 people seeking help for opioid use disorder or another substance use disorder.  

Launched in 2016, the Revere, Massachusetts, Substance Use Disorder Initiative (SUDI) fields a team consisting of a fire fighter, a recovery coach, and a harm reduction specialist who conduct door-to-door follow up visits at the homes of overdose survivors and provide them and their with families information and resources including overdose prevention and naloxone training and kits, and offer to assist individuals in accessing treatment. The initiative is housed in a central office and coordinates the city's public health and public safety efforts in response to the opioid crisis.

ONDCP is reaching out to these and other innovative initiatives to learn from their successes so their models and best practices can be quickly replicated in communities across the country as we work to address the ongoing addiction and opioid epidemic.

Have a promising practice to share? Email your model to OIPL@ondcp.eop.gov

Meet Helen Hernandez, the Administrator of the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program




The Drug-Free Communities Support Program is the only Federal youth substance us prevention program that directly funds communities. By directly funding community coalitions working to prevent drug use, the White House, Congressional leadership, and ONDCP are able to get a real-time check of what is happening on the ground all across the country.

As the Administrator of this national program, Ms. Hernandez's main job is to ensure that DFC-funded community coalitions have the tools and resources they need to be effective in identifying the local youth substance use problems in their communities and developing their local sustainable solutions. With that guiding principle, she oversees the $95 million budget appropriated by Congress, which is currently helping support 698 community coalitions nationwide. Since a key part of her job is making sure the funds are being used effectively and efficiently, Ms. Hernandez oversees the National Evaluation of the DFC Program, including the development of the new data collection system so coalitions will – for the first time ever – get a snapshot of how they are doing, and the day-to-day management of the program.

In 2010, Ms. Hernandez enlisted in the U.S. Public Health Service and was stationed at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Center for Substance Abuse Prevention as a Public Health Advisor for the DFC Program. In this role, she was responsible for the day-to-day oversight of DFC grantees in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Puerto Rico.  In 2013, she joined ONDCP as the manager of the entire DFC Program.

"My experience working with the leaders at the local level, who are boots on the ground, has given me a unique perspective on what community coalitions need from ONDCP. As a DFC Project Officer, I had the opportunity to speak and visit with coalitions and understand what their challenges were and together we would brainstorm on the best possible strategies and solutions. At the time, my impact was just with those coalitions I oversaw. I took the lessons I learned and used them to guide how I work, how I advise ONDCP about drug policy, and how we make this program more effective. I know firsthand that community mobilizing is hard work but we have been able to accomplish a lot, and our national evaluation demonstrates that."  The February 2016 National Evaluation of the DFC program showed prevalence of alcohol use by middle school youth declined by 26%, prevalence of marijuana use declined by 14%, and prevalence of illicit prescription drug use declined by 11% from the first to the most recent data reports across all DFC coalitions ever funded.

Prior to joining the Federal government, Ms. Hernandez served as a Health Educator with the Miami-Dade Area Health Education Center as a breast cancer awareness and prevention advocate, where she delivered over 300 bilingual trainings to a primarily youth-based audience.  Ms. Hernandez earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Health Education from the University of Florida, and received her Master's in Public Health with a concentration in Community Health from Florida International University.

Get Involved in SAMHSA's National Prevention Week, May 14–20, 2017




Join ONDCP in recognizing National Prevention Week (NPW). Hosted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), NPW is an annual observance focused on increasing the public awareness and action to prevent substance use and promote mental health. Each year, communities and organizations across the country come together to raise awareness about the importance of substance use prevention and mental health promotion. This year's theme is "Making Each Day Count."

Thinking about or already planning an NPW event? Check out the NPW Planning Toolkit for ideas and free resources. For more information about NPW 2017 and how you can get involved, visit SAMHSA online.

National Cocaine Coordination Group leads interagency team to Colombia

Associate Director Eric Talbot led an interagency team to Colombia in April for meetings with Colombia's new Vice President, Oscar Naranjo, and other senior officials.  The team presented the recently released U.S. government estimates of the dramatic rise in Colombia's coca cultivation and cocaine production. Colombian officials noted the ongoing demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia presented an opening to provide security and economic opportunities to farmers in regions of significant coca cultivation, and outlined their plans to reduce coca cultivation through a combination of incentives for voluntary eradication and forced eradication. Mr. Talbot described worrisome increases in cocaine use in the United States and the urgent need for progress in reversing recent trends. He reinforced the U.S. commitment to cooperate to reduce coca cultivation, as well as cocaine production and use. 

To address rising cocaine supplies before use in the United States rises further, ONDCP stood up the National Cocaine Coordination Group in the fall of 2016 using existing, in-house expertise. The cocaine group has led a multi-disciplinary team of interagency experts that are developing a balanced policy framework across all aspects of the growing cocaine threat. The group is focusing on three primary action areas:

• Identifying at-risk people and communities
• Dismantling major cocaine trafficking organizations
• Reversing the spike in coca cultivation and cocaine production.



While in Colombia, Mr. Talbot also received a tour of a Colombian National Police facility near Bogota that highlighted the strong cooperation between the U.S. and Colombian Governments on eradication missions.

Mr. Talbot has 15 years of experience in counterdrug and border security efforts, including time on the National Security Council staff, at the Department of Homeland Security, and as a civilian with the Navy.  He has a long background in Latin America as well, having deployed to Mexico and Colombia supporting U.S. interdiction and law enforcement operations.

Responding to Opioid Use Disorder in Correctional Settings

ONDCP continues to engage with Federal partners to advance the use of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) – medications approved for the treatment of opioid use disorder (buprenorphine, methadone, or naltrexone ) – for people involved in the criminal justice system who have this disease, and it's encouraging to see an increasing number of criminal justice systems that are beginning to implement MAT. ONDCP is championing MAT adoption in the criminal justice system in a number of ways, including by:

• Working with the Office of Justice Programs, its Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) Training and Technical Assistance Center, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to provide MAT training and technical assistance to state correctional departments receiving grants under RSAT program;
• Supporting the development of MAT learning materials and partnering with the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) to designate Centers of Innovation. ONDCP staff recently had the opportunity to participate in training offered through an Innovation Center in Kentucky to see firsthand the technical assistance being provided to other states and counties.  NIC has provided this training to staff from more than 13 states to date, with additional trainings scheduled for June of 2017. 

Peru & the United States:  Sharing Strategies Between Drug Control Agencies

On April 24, Carmen Masias, Executive President of Peru's National Commission for Development and Life without Drugs (DEVIDA), met with Acting Director Baum and representatives from the Office of Policy, Research and Budget, National Cocaine Coordination Group, and Office of Intelligence.  Meetings between ONDCP and its Peruvian counterpart agency occur on a regular basis, and though Acting Director Baum and Ms. Masias have met several times before, it was the first meeting since Mr. Baum was named as ONDCP's Acting Director. 

Their primary focus was to discuss the drug control strategies of each country. In the U.S., the National Drug Control Strategy is written by ONDCP, the President's lead drug control policy experts. Ms. Masias and Acting Director Baum were able to share information on issues plaguing each nation, and discuss the impact that increased coca cultivation has on both countries. Peru continues to seek partnership and guidance on matters of drug demand reduction and alternative development, and ONDCP is honored to work with this important foreign partner.

Reminder: ONDCP is currently developing the first National Drug Control Strategy of the Trump Administration. Please submit your feedback to 2017strategy@ondcp.eop.gov