August 2, 2017 – More Press

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Anchor lead: How can recommendations from the Institute of Medicine help stem the tide of opioid overdose? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Even as debate over repealing many aspects of the Affordable Care Act continues in DC, the Institute of Medicine and other august agencies are issuing recommendations on how to manage the public health crisis of opioid addiction and overdose death. Eric Strain, an expert on drug abuse at Johns Hopkins, says public awareness is key.

Strain: The increased attention on this is very good. I think that the medical profession, and society is certainly more aware of it. What we need is we need quality treatment available, and it’s hard to get quality treatment up and scaled overnight. We don’t have good quality treatment. We actually have improving ways to pay for treatment through the affordable care act in many states but we don’t necessarily have the providers in place who can provide that treatment.  :28

Strain says a lack of qualified treatment professionals has allowed some opportunists to thrive. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.