University of South Florida Opioid Crisis Paper

Project Scenario 2.

The opioid crisis has plagued the United States for decades.  As various policies have been implemented at both federal and state levels, the problem seemed to become more contained in recent years. However, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, a huge increase in overdoses swept across the country almost as concurrent as Covid -19.  The Tampa Bay region was not immune to the destruction of either of these two public health crises. As the opioid epidemic surged due to the multiple stressors caused by the coronavirus pandemic – overdoses soared!  In fact, experts in Tampa Bay reported a 36% increase of opioid related deaths in 2020 – up from 2019.   Opioid addiction has an enormous impact on our region to include significant burdens to our law enforcement resources, healthcare, emergency services and social services. Many of these costly burdens our absorbed by our counties, cities and their taxpayers.  Yet, drug reduction strategies have been highly debated for years – what is best practice? Is it prevention? Treatment? Harm Reduction? Your group should study the problem, talk with local experts who know the issue and its impacts, then propose potential solutions based on the principles and ideals of public service, policies and community leadership that we’ve studied this semester.  The following community partners have agreed to discuss this issue with your group(s).  You should plan on interviewing these community leaders, and you may add other names to the list based on your initial discussions.

-This is a group project I was assigned part 4 of the project which is listed below and our group communicated with the community partners I will say what one had said.

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4. Finally, your policy brief should conclude with a series of evidence-based recommendations. This should include a list of actions that you recommend the affected institutions, organizations, and/or communities may take in order to address the problem.  Group recommendations should be directly relevant to the assigned problem and communities (as defined in the first two sections of your paper), and they should be informed by your research and discussed in light of the relevant evaluative criteria (i.e. cost/benefit, efficiency, effectiveness, equity, feasibility, etc.).

What recommendations would you give to the friends, or family of a victim of opioid substance abuse? (COMMUNITY PARTNER MARIANNE DEAN )Florida Health Department – Overdose data coordinator

a. Reoccurrence is part of recovery.  There are people who CARE.  The people who judge individuals with substance use disorders likely don’t realize they have their own addictions.  Have you ever see someone who HAS to drink coffee everyday, NOT have coffee?  They’re miserable and they act as if the world is ending.  Ever try NOT to eat carbs?  Feels near impossible for some, andis impossible for many.  So why is there so much animosity surrounding those who have addictions to substances that literally rewire the way their brains operate?  Compassion is key, and it is difficult for both the person using substances, and the family involved in their lifestyle choices.  There is no one easy answer, recovery is NOT one-size-fits-all, and sometimes the hardest decisions are the best.  Getting counseling involved for everyone, not just the person who is using a substance, is helpful to understand that they aren’t using substances to spite everyone surrounding them.  There are populations that are never going to change no matter what you try, and there is a much larger population that just needs help.. Recommendations and Rationale: