The United States is in the midst of an epidemic of prescription drug abuse and opioid addiction crisis, and Western Pennsylvania has been ground zero with a shocking number of accidental and intentional overdose deaths.
This past week, Congressman Murphy joined Congressman Bill Shuster for a joint Town Hall at Penn State Fayette in Lemont Furnace with local leaders to discuss community solutions to end addiction and turn lives around. Both Murphy and Shuster emphasized the need for collaboration and a team approach to recovery to yield the best results for patients.
To save lives and get people into recovery, the House and Senate joined forces and sent to the President legislation to combat opioid overdoses and modernize our response to addiction.
Recently signed into law, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 works to combat the opioid epidemic from every angle by: targeting resources into local communities; enhancing medication-assisted treatment
programs; helping newborns born into addiction; and promoting state prescription drug monitoring programs.
The new law also increases access to the life-saving drug naloxone and improves substance abuse treatment programs for veterans. Along with medication-assisted treatment, Murphy and Shuster pledged to continue fighting to ensure evidence-based care programs are affordable, accessible and available to those needing long term recovery options. The participants agreed that to help people achieve full recovery and sobriety, programs must focus on more individualized models of care with inpatient treatment beds.