To help address the nationwide addiction crisis and strengthen the road to recovery, states need to invest in access to quality recovery housing. Evidence shows that recovery housing is instrumental in helping individuals with substance use disorders achieve and sustain a life in recovery. Despite this, recovery homes are often under-resourced and excluded from public sector policies and resources. In response, the National Council for Behavioral Health and National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR) issued Building Recovery: State Policy Guide for Supporting Recovery Housing  to assist states with the creation of recovery housing certification programs that standardize recovery housing operations to protect and support residents.

Building Recovery provides states the knowledge and guidance to adopt recovery housing standards, incentivize compliance and invest in recovery housing infrastructure. The toolkit also includes sample resources such as a model state law, a legislative matrix of current and proposed recovery housing bills, an action assessment and list of research briefs that are publicly available for review.

During the 2018 Legislative Session, Governor Haslam proposed and passed a legislative package known as TN Together to aid in battling the state’s opioid crisis. The plan was comprised of two pieces of legislation.

The first bill (HB1831/SB2257) limits the duration and dosage of opioid prescriptions for new patients. With initial opioid prescriptions limited to a 3-day supply, Tennessee will have one of the most strict and aggressive opioid policies in the nation. Prescribers may offer patients a three, five, or 10-day prescription with no more than a 10-day supply subject to a dosage cap. The bill includes exceptions for serious ailments, such as major surgeries and chronic conditions. Although the bill amassed wide support, the Tennessee Medical Association expressed concerns about the possible ramifications on medical provider autonomy.

The second bill (HB1832/SB2258) creates incentives for inmates to complete intensive substance use treatment programs while incarcerated and updates the schedule of controlled substances to better detect and penalize unlawful use and distribution of opioids. It also adds synthetic versions of the drug fentanyl, linked to an alarming number of overdose deaths, to the controlled substance schedules. For more on TN Together visit www.tn.gov/opioids.

Prescription Nation 2018: Facing America's Opioid Epidemic

The opioid crisis is worsening. Over 42,000 Americans died of opioid overdose in 2016, and government and public health officials are scrambling to find effective ways to reverse this frightening trend.

NSC experts conducted an extensive review of current literature, state legislation and data to create a comprehensive report on the status of the opioid crisis. This white paper evaluates each state's progress in fighting this epidemic, based on the number of these six key actions achieved:

• Mandating prescriber education
• Implementing opioid prescribing guidelines
• Integrating prescription drug monitoring programs into clinical settings
• Improving data collection and sharing
• Treating opioid overdose
• Increasing availability of opioid use disorder treatment

The Prescription Nation 2018 report gives you:

• A state-by-state comparison of actions taken
• Failing-lagging-improving grades for each state
• Descriptions of key actions and how they make a difference
• What's working in states that have faced the crisis head on
• Case studies, success stories and addiction experts' insights

As the death toll from opioid overdose increases, addressing the crisis becomes ever more urgent. Only 13 states and District of Columbia have improved their response to the opioid crisis since our 2016 report. Sadly, eight states earned failing grades this time. Is your state doing enough? What can we do to turn the tide of an epidemic that is endangering the future of our country?