Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. In 2017, more than 1,700 people died of a drug overdose in Indiana—an all-time high. This surge in overdose deaths has been driven by opioids, which now account for more than 80% of overdose deaths. Along with effective substance use prevention and harm reduction strategies, properly addressing the opioid epidemic requires ensuring access to effective treatment for individuals with opioid use disorder. That includes those in the criminal justice system. A large share of individuals in prisons and jails have misused opioids, and it’s estimated that 24%-36% of all heroin addicts pass through the criminal justice system each […]

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. U.S. News & World Report recently issued its latest “Best States” rankings, and Indiana comes in at #33. Of the eight categories measured to calculate this ranking, Indiana’s outcomes in Health Care (#40) and Quality of Life (#48) are the biggest drag on our state’s performance. When it comes to assessing our public health outcomes, Indiana fares worst on the following key metrics: infant mortality (#42), smoking (#41) and obesity (#40). A closer look at the infant mortality rate shows that key drivers of infant mortality – defined as the death of a child under one year […]