substance abuse

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is working with states to promote access to Medicaid services for people with mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) crises. Authorized under President Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP), states have a new option for supporting community-based mobile crisis intervention services for individuals with Medicaid. This option will help states integrate these services into their Medicaid programs, a critical component in establishing a sustainable and public health-focused support network.

This blog post by Keri Lipperini, ACL's Director of the Office of Nutrition and Health Promotion Programs, discusses how social isolation during COVID-19 has affected the health and wellbeing of older adults. The post also highlights ACL programs that are targeting this issue, including PEARLS, Healthy IDEAS, and BRITE, which are three evidence-based programs that aim to reduce the risk of suicide by tackling depression and substance abuse among older adults.

This report assembles opioid-related information from the Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health. This allows the general public and the family and friends of people with an elevated risk of opioid overdose, opioid misuse, and/or opioid use disorder to view all of this information in one place. The report goes over the current landscape, reviews the neurobiology of substance use, and discusses the continuum of care and the role of health care systems.

This resource list includes key resources on the mental health needs of older adults, effective interventions, workforce issues, and more.