It’s Hard To Predict Who Will Be Suicidal. It’s Easier To Ensure People Can’t Shoot Themselves.
Some mental health experts favor suicide prevention steps that are applied broadly, with protections that aren’t tied to an individual’s specific risk.
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A State Gave Sheriffs 20% of Its Opioid Settlement Cash. We Followed the Money.
Opioid settlement cash was meant to abate the addiction crisis. But a new investigation reveals millions in Louisiana was spent on law enforcement gear and police technology instead of lifesaving treatment.
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Budget Battle Erupts in Nation’s Capital Over Opioid Settlement Money
Washington, D.C.’s 2027 fiscal-year blueprint reflects a debate playing out around the U.S.: whether opioid settlement money should be used to free up taxpayer dollars by paying for existing responsibilities instead of new programs.
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Leadership Vacuum: Agencies in New York and Beyond Pass the Buck on Opioid Cash Oversight
The opioid settlements are a multibillion-dollar windfall with only loose spending suggestions rather than strict requirements. Some people directly affected by the crisis want stronger guardrails. But New York state’s experience highlights the challenge in finding a fiscal watchdog.
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Trivia Nights, Valentine’s Cards: Overlooked Social Connections Can Prevent Suicide
The research is clear: Among the various complex issues that contribute to suicide, loneliness is a big one. Now, there’s a growing push to address loneliness not just through personal choices but also through public policy.
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Low Wages, Empty Plates, Heavy Toll: Rethinking Suicide Prevention
Decades of research indicate that interventions that bring down people’s cost of living, such as ensuring they have access to stable housing and food, are linked to lower suicide rates.
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Trump’s Drug Strategy Aims To Bolster Addiction Services — Despite Gutting of Government Support
The White House’s strategy for tackling the drug and addiction crisis, released this week, sets lofty public health goals but highlights deep inconsistencies with the administration’s own funding cuts and other policies.
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Prevention Efforts Increasingly See Suicide Through a Broader Lens
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Saving Lives by Changing Lives: The Next Frontier in Suicide Prevention
Someone in America dies by suicide every 11 minutes. It’s a tragic and entrenched problem. A new approach to prevention shifts the focus from stopping harm in moments of crisis to upstream policies that give people reasons to live.
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Maker of Device To Treat Addiction Withdrawal Seeks Counties’ Opioid Settlement Cash
Some researchers and recovery advocates see the NET device as the latest in a series of products pitched as the solution to the addiction crisis that have been overhyped to capitalize on money from the opioid settlements.
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How Is Your County Spending Opioid Settlement Cash? Our New Tool Follows the Money.
Lifesaving or wasteful? Opinion is divided on the ways local communities are using opioid settlement funds. Survivors of the overdose crisis and families who’ve lost loved ones to it are raising alarms about what some perceive as wasteful spending.
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Thrift Store. Clinic. Roller Rink. Center Becomes ‘Radical’ Lifeline Amid Homelessness, Drug Crises.
Located in the Lower 9th Ward, this abandoned building has become a community sanctuary and resource.
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Inside the Battle for the Future of Addiction Medicine
The experiences of one doctor in Louisiana reveal the tensions around trying to get people to engage in addiction treatment, even if they’re not ready to stop using drugs.
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Narcan, Drones, and Concerts: How Governments Spent Opioid Settlement Windfalls
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Sock Hops and Concerts: How Some Places Spent Opioid Settlement Cash
States, counties, and cities are receiving millions in opioid settlement money to address the addiction crisis. The ways they spent the dollars in 2024 sometimes drew criticism from advocates and at least one state official, who alleged misuse.
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From Narcan to Gun Silencers, Opioid Settlement Cash Pays Law Enforcement Tabs
Local governments have received hundreds of millions of dollars from the opioid settlements to support addiction treatment, recovery, and prevention efforts. Their spending decisions in 2024 were sometimes surprising and even controversial. Our new database offers more than 10,500 examples.
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An HIV Outbreak in Maine Shows the Risk of Trump’s Crackdown on Homelessness and Drug Use
Public health experts and advocates say the outbreak has been fueled by a confluence of local factors, including the sweeping of a homeless encampment and shuttering of a sterile-syringe program. But those issues may not remain local for long. The Trump administration is leading efforts to promote similar tactics nationwide.
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Optum Rx Invokes Open Meetings Law To Fight Kentucky Counties on Opioid Suits
In a Goliath-versus-David fight, UnitedHealth Group’s pharmacy benefit manager, Optum Rx, has filed lawsuits in five counties to stop them from including the company in national opioid litigation.
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Who’s Policing Opioid Settlement Spending? A Crowdsourced Database Might Help
Billions in opioid settlement money was meant to be spent on treating and preventing addiction — but what happens if it’s misspent? Some advocates say attorneys general need to pay closer attention. If they don’t, a new tool might empower the public.
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Workplace Mental Health at Risk as Key Federal Agency Faces Cuts
Efforts to decrease alarmingly high rates of suicide among construction workers and prevent burnout in health care workers are in jeopardy after the firing of hundreds of employees at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
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