Addiction Policy Forum

Crisis services: apf has provided support and guidance to families and patients since our launch in 2015. Calls and texts to apf's helpline come in from professionals, loved ones of someone with a substance use disorder, people in recovery, and people struggling with their substance use and are answered by social workers and peer support specialists. In efforts to provide resources for family members who are trying to navigate the complex world of addiction and help loved ones achieve recovery, apf has provided encompass: a comprehensive training on navigating addiction.

Research initiatives: apf conducts original research on emerging issues, often bringing together experts from multiple disciplines to collaborate on complex challenges that affect our community, from measuring levels of addiction stigma, identifying stigmatizing imagery, and mapping the patient journey through treatment and recovery. Stigma-focused research publications to date include: stigma survey report: findings on attitudes, patient journey map, levels of stigma and support of key policies around addiction. The patient journey map was developed by apf through the input of patients in treatment and recovery from substance use disorders. The qualitative study included 60 life course history interviews of individuals in recovery from a substance use disorder (sud) from 22 states and canada. The apf was named one of the winners of the national institute on drug abuse "mapping patient journeys in drug addiction treatment challenge."

Stigma initiative: projects in apf's anti-stigma initiative include science translation, awareness campaigns, a stigma research portfolio, distribution of educational materials and toolkits, community training and deployment of a free, online addiction school. To date, we have taken anti-stigma projects to 4,738,610 individuals worldwide.prevention initiative: apf's prevention projects include: 1) helping children impacted by parental substance use disorder, a toolkit designed for adults who come into contact with children impacted by a parent's addiction and provides information about how to help; 2) the opioid prevention campaign that helps prevent adolescent substance use; and 3) the multilingual resources initiative to ensure families and communities with limited english proficiency have meaningful access to health information about the opioid crisis and substance use disorders, free of language barriers.