Trust for America’s Health and Well Being Trust Launch National Resilience Strategy Blueprint to Raise Awareness of and Offer Solutions for Drug, Alcohol and Suicide Crises

(Washington, DC and Oakland, Calif., July 2) – A new web-based blueprint designed to help communities deal with the drug, alcohol and suicide crises launched today.

In November of 2017, Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and Well Being Trust (WBT) released Pain in the Nation: The Drug, Alcohol and Suicide Crises and the Need for a National Resilience Strategy. The report detailed the growing number of “despair deaths” – deaths due to drug and alcohol misuse and suicide – and more than 60 evidence-based programs proven to help fight contributing factors and save lives.

This companion piece, the Pain in the Nation: National Resilience Strategy website, will help policy-makers and community leaders access critical data and prevention-oriented programs and policies – including promotion of responsible opioid prescribing practices, enforcement of underage drinking laws, and anti-bullying and social-emotional learning programs in schools, among others. The website also provides state level data on how the drug, alcohol and suicide crises are impacting lives across the country and includes case studies describing community and school-based prevention programs that work.

“The numbers of these deaths are staggering and tragic. They are also preventable,” says John Auerbach, president and CEO of Trust for America’s Health.  “As a nation, we need to apply what we know about prevention to address the root causes of this epidemic of substance abuse and suicide. The time to act is now.”

According to the Trust for America’s Health and the Well Being Trust, a National Resilience Strategy must be comprehensive and focused at both the crisis intervention level and on early identification of and action on the causes of poor mental and physical health. The Pain in the Nation: National Resilience Strategy website provides a high-level roadmap for communities to tackle these difficult issues.

“To better support the conditions that can prevent these deaths of despair, we must intervene at the source and look at the issue through a more comprehensive systems lens,” says  Benjamin F. Miller, Psy.D., Chief Strategy Officer, Well Being Trust. “While closing the treatment gap is important, we’ll never get there if we don’t also focus on closing the prevention gap – by increasing attention on adverse childhood experiences, chronic stress, food deserts and all the additional health inequities across geographies and demographics.”

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Trust for America’s Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that promotes optimal health for every person and community and makes the prevention of illness and injury a national priority. Twitter: @HealthyAmerica1

Well Being Trust is a national foundation dedicated to advancing the mental, social and spiritual health of the nation. Created to include participation from organizations across sectors and perspectives, Well Being Trust is committed to innovating and addressing the most critical mental health challenges facing America, and to transforming individual and community wellness. http://wellbeingtrust.org/. Twitter: @WellBeingTrust