The little-known program contributing to a decline in overdose deaths in the US [View all]

[ancianita]

Last edited Mon Dec 29, 2025, 12:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Hannah Harris Green
Sun 28 Dec 2025 07.00 EST

https://archive.ph/qA2RT

[excerpt... West Virginia, long known as the epicenter of the opioid crisis, is also among the states that have most reduced overdose fatalities] ... One little explored factor is the increased adoption of crisis intervention training (CIT) for law enforcement. Early research that compares jurisdictions that have CIT programs to those that do not show that this intervention is associated with a decline in overdose fatalities...

CIT teaches officers how to recognize when someone is struggling with substance use and in a state of crisis, how to speak to them empathetically and calmly, and encourage them to seek treatment. [Yolanda] Mwikasa said that getting people to treatment and into recovery reduces their motivation to commit crimes and can help them live longer without overdosing, even if their recovery is not permanent. Sending them to jail, on the other hand, increases the risk of fatal overdose and of continued substance use.

Richard Frank, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who helped coordinate the Obama administration’s opioid response, said that getting people into treatment rather than jail wasn’t just about intention, it’s about effort. For example, he noted the importance of a “warm handoff”, meaning you deliver someone to a treatment facility directly, rather than simply giving them a phone number...

“Holding people accountable and getting them help are not opposites,” Mwikisa said. “The real failure is when we do neither.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/28/crisis-intervention-training-overdose-death-decline

Thanks, Obama and Biden.