Alignment for Progress: A National Strategy for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
It’s time for a meaningful national conversation about mental health and substance use care. We must remove the barriers to equitable and available coverage for these conditions so people can get the help they need.
Welcome To The National Strategy
Want to understand more about the importance of building a National Strategy for Mental Health & Substance Use Disorders?
How Content Is Organized and How Best to Search/Sort the Recommendations
The National Strategy recommendations are organized by category, with impacted populations and topical areas providing additional nuance and the ability to narrow a search. We have also included the option to search recommendations by the relevant House and Senate committees of jurisdiction.
Recommendation Selection Methodologies and Criteria
After conducting a thorough review of the federal policy landscape, The Kennedy Forum team created this first-of-its-kind compilation of policy recommendations needed to transform our mental health and substance use systems. The recommendations have been sourced and vetted from numerous organizations, advocates, and experts across the country in order to capture a robust set of recommendations for lawmakers and federal agencies to act on.
All National Strategy Recommendations
These featured recommendations are highlighted based on their importance in beginning the national movement towards better care for everyone.
Reinstitute the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program
The Administration should reinstitute the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program to improve data collection and provide resources for other promising surveillance systems.[1]
In 1998, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) launched the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program to expand and restructure[2] its predecessor, the Drug Use Forecasting program, which was in place from 1987-1997.[3] ADAM collected data from adult male arrestees to help monitor drug use trends.[4] ADAM provided an objective biological measure of drug use and self-reported use among those arrested and charged with crimes.[4] The NIJ collected ADAM data between 1998-2003[4] and the Office of National Drug Control Policy reinstated ADAM data collection (as ADAM II) in 2007 with a reduced number of data collection sites.[4] ADAM data has not been collected since 2013, when the program was discontinued.
Data informs decisions in public health by tracking better, faster, and more actionable insights.[5] Centralized data collection repositories like ADAM aid in sharing outcomes, trends, and insights in addressing drug use within this population. ADAM data provided critical information for policymakers at local and federal levels to assess trends of use and impact of public programs.[6]
Topics
Pass the STRIP Act
Congress should pass the STRIP Act to amend the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to exempt individuals from punishment for the possession, sale, or purchase of fentanyl drug testing equipment.
Fentanyl test strips are small strips of paper that can detect the presence of fentanyl in multiple kinds of drugs.[1] In 2021, overdose deaths due to fentanyl rose 26 percent from the previous year, reaching over 67,000.[2] The rapid rise in fentanyl-related deaths has been driven by the increasing presence of fentanyl in many drugs. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has reported a rapid rise in fentanyl-laced pills that can appear legitimate that, in fact, contain a potentially lethal amount of fentanyl.[3] In April 2023, the Biden Administration announced a multi-factored approach to disrupt fentanyl supply chains into the United States.[4] However, the problem remains that fentanyl testing strips are illegal in a handful of states.[5] The CDC recommends test strips as a means of saving lives and preventing drug overdoses.[1] Congress should pass the bipartisan STRIP Act to remove fentanyl test strips from the CSA, as well as increase funding to public health agencies to scale up the range of public health approaches, including fentanyl test strips, that are critical to saving lives.[6]