One of the most serious public health concerns in recent decades has been the opioid epidemic in the United States (US). Over 9.9 million Americans aged 12 and up abused prescription pain drugs in 2018, and roughly 2 million Americans were diagnosed with opioid use disorder. In 2019, 49,860 drug overdose deaths (70.6 percent of all drug overdose deaths) were caused by opioid use and abuse. The opioid crisis has a huge influence on healthcare expenses and expenditures, in addition to the appalling toll on morbidity and death.

Previous studies on the expenses and expenditures of healthcare...

This resource describes the many potential roles of nurses in alcohol and drug treatment in England to help commissioners and providers of specialist adult alcohol and drug treatment services to recruit the right workforce to meet local needs.

It was written by:

• the Royal College of Nursing
• the Association of Nurses in Substance Abuse (ANSA)
• the National Substance Misuse Non-Medical Prescribing Forum
• Public Health England

In this video, Charlotte Sisson, Senior Foreign Affairs Officer within the Office of Global Programmes and Policy in the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, introduces the audience to the work of the INL, Colombo Plan and ISSUP.

This keynote presentation was part of the International Nurses Society on Addictions (IntNSA) Virtual Conference that took place in October.