Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. From July 2016 to September 2017, Indiana’s emergency departments saw a 35 percent increase in opioid overdoses, according to data released this month from the CDC. The most dramatic increases occurred in metropolitan areas like Indianapolis. These numbers indicate that the opioid epidemic shows no signs of slowing down. And they point to a continued need for efforts to address opioid use disorder in Marion County and across the state. Toward that end, Indiana Executive Director for Drug Prevention, Treatment and Enforcement Jim McClelland and Social Services Administration Secretary Jennifer Walthall announced this month a […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. The opioid epidemic continues to take a devastating toll in Indianapolis and across the state. While there are no silver bullets, there are interventions that have strong evidence for impact. Chief among them is medication-assisted treatment, or MAT. MAT is often controversial because of the common misconception that it simply substitutes one drug for another (i.e., methadone for heroin). On the contrary, medications like buprenorphine and methadone provide a limited dosage to reduce cravings and withdrawal and help individuals with opioid use disorder on their path to recovery. Most importantly, it works. There is ample […]