Trump HHS: We’re bringing new urgency to crisis

President Trump directed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to declare a historic public health emergency regarding the opioid crisis last Oct. 26. But every day since I arrived to run the federal government’s behavioral health agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and every day since the president took office, America’s opioid crisis has been treated as an emergency situation.

As the former chief medical officer of a state struggling with the crisis and former chief medical officer of SAMHSA, I can say with confidence that this administration has brought a new, desperately needed level of urgency to the crisis our families and communities are suffering from every day.

Three months after the president took office, HHS launched a new comprehensive strategy for combating the opioid crisis. In 2017, partly thanks to extra funding in a bill signed by President Trump, the entire federal government devoted more than $1 billion specifically to this effort — including assistance for first responders to receive lifesaving overdose reversing drugs.

OUR VIEW: Where is Trump's emergency on opioid?

We are also pursuing new ways to empower state agencies and civil society through technical assistance, adopting a more individualized approach and replacing a dysfunctional federal registry of practices and programs with a Policy Lab that will provide actionable knowledge. HHS is also answering the president’s call to focus on public awareness, beginning the market research and message-testing we know is necessary for such campaigns to succeed.

We at HHS are exploring every avenue for action we have under the public health emergency declaration. For example, we are working with the Drug Enforcement Administration on how to expand access to addiction treatment through telemedicine.

Each day, we are working to empower Americans in their individual and local battles against this crisis — and with them, we will turn the tide on this epidemic.

Elinore F. McCance-Katz is assistant secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use in the Health and Human Services Department.

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