News & Updates — Webinar

It is estimated that over 76,975 Americans died because of an opioid overdose in 2021, including from prescription opioids, heroin, and illicit fentanyl. Strikingly, the number of opioid overdoses in the United States has more than quadrupled since 1999, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Furthermore, an estimated 2.7 million people aged 12 and older currently suffer from an opioid use disorder (OUD). Medications for OUD (MOUD) has been shown to reduce fatal overdoses and opioid use and allow recovery and restoration of healthy function. While effective treatments for OUD are available, at a national level, however, there remains barriers to accessing evidence-based treatment, as only 11.2 percent of all people aged 12 or older with a past year OUD received MOUD in 2020.

FORE’s first grantmaking program started in 2020 focused on promoting access to OUD treatment across the United States, with a particular focus on urban, rural, minority, tribal, and low-income communities that lack resources to meet patients and families’ needs. A number of these projects have completed the important work of generating current data on gaps in services and disparities, as well as identifying what’s most effective in reducing barriers to treatment, producing new information that can inform policymakers, payers, and providers.

Please join us on Thursday, June 23^rd at 3pm EST as we welcome…

• Arjun Venkatesh, MD, MBA, MHS, Associate Professor and Chief of the Section of Administration in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale University
  Grantee: American College of Emergency Physicians
  Project: Meeting Patients at the Front Door – Initiating Opioid Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery in our Nation’s Emergency Departments
• Lisa Clemens-Cope, PhD, Senior Research Fellow in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute
  Grantee: Urban Institute
  Project: Improving Access to the Continuum of Care for Opioid Use Disorder for Low-Income Adolescents and Young Adults
• Peter Treitler, MSW, Research Specialist in the Center for Health Services Research at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research
  Grantee: Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
  Project: Integrating Medications for Opioid Use Disorder into Primary Medical Care: Innovative Payer and Provider Strategies for Improving Treatment Engagement, Retention, Outcomes, and Disparities
• Bradley Stein, MD, PhD, Director of the Opioid Policies, Tools, and Information Center (OPTIC) at the RAND Corporation
  Grantee: RAND Corporation
  Project: Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Role of State Policy Changes

… as they present and react to findings from their FORE-funded projects and provide some recommendations for the field. The webinar will run until 4:30pm to allow for an extended discussion and Q&A session following the presentation.

Register for Webinar Here

We invite you to look at our Resources page for the most up-to-date information and guidance. You can view a recording of our previous webinars below. As always, please reach out with questions and/or resources that you believe would benefits others.