Want to get involved in opioid-related advocacy? Scott Barstow, director of congressional affairs for APA Services Inc., recommends that psychologists:
- Learn more about what pain management and opioid treatment look like in your own community. Are there enough inpatient and outpatient treatment slots? Do patients have access to psychological services and the full range of medications used for addiction treatment? Does Medicaid or private insurance cover such treatment?
- Start calling city council members, state legislators and other decision-makers after identifying gaps in treatment availability.
- Contact members of CongHow you can get involvedress to ask them to fund the programs established in last year's SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act in this year's appropriations bill. "Only about one in four Americans struggling with opioids gets decent treatment, and many experts believe new federal spending on the order of $10 billion to $20 billion per year for the next several years is needed to adequately ramp up treatment," says Barstow.
- Act locally. "A lot of the action is going to happen at the state level," says Barstow. State Medicaid agencies and substance use disorder agencies will be the focus of much activity, including decision-making regarding the use of any increases in federal funding of treatment, prevention and recovery programs, Barstow predicts. Also, 14 states have yet to implement Medicaid expansion, which has increased access to opioid use treatment significantly in the states that have adopted it, he says.