Background for Solvers 
  • You should have already reviewed the Rules and Requirements for all of the specific Submission requirements. If not, check them out. Remember - your submitted application MUST include some specific resources and address specific insights.
  • Do you need more information on what it means to be a patient using medication-assisted treatment? Check out SAMHSA’s brochure created to help friends and family of people on medication-assisted treatment learn more about it. 
  • Looking for more information about medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction? You can explore SAMHSA’s Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP 43) on Medication-assisted treatment for Opioid Addiction in Opioid Treatment Programs. It offers a detailed description of medication-assisted treatment for addiction to opioids. 
  • Need more insight into the end user? Check out our use cases. You can also find information on other government sites, like recoverymonth.gov, or public websites, such as Addiction Survivors Peer Support Forum, National Alliance for Medication-assisted Recovery and Patients Like Me.
  • Think about how you’d want to access and view (via a smartphone) prescription drug and health educational information if you had a long-term health, substance use, or mental health condition you were trying to manage.

 

SAMHSA’s Data on Opioid Use:

According to SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) – 2014:

  • 4.3 million Americans engaged in non-medical use of prescription painkillers in the last month.
  • Approximately 1.9 million Americans met criteria for a substance use disorder based on their use of prescription painkillers in the past year.
  • 1.4 million people used prescription painkillers non-medically for the first time in the past year.
  • The average age for prescription painkiller first-time use was 21.2 in the past year.
  • 4.8 million people have used heroin at some point in their lives.
  • Among people between the ages of 12 and 49, the average age of first heroin use was 28.
  • 212,000 people aged 12 or older used heroin for the first time within the past 12 months.