Caleb Banta-Green, adjunct professor at HSPop and Director of the Center for Community-Engaged Drug Education, Epidemiology & Research (CEDEER) at the Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute, co-developed Health Engagement Hubs to combat the opioid crisis, specifically targeting fentanyl overdoses. These hubs, part of the bipartisan Fatal Overdose Reduction Act, integrate services like opioid-use disorder treatment, physical and mental healthcare, and infectious disease prevention into a single location. Banta-Green emphasized that the hubs aim to reduce harm and support recovery, offering both harm-reduction materials and treatment medications.
Banta-Green’s decade-long research shows significant reductions in opioid use and mortality which has led to his advocating for a national implementation of the model. “Our goal is engagement. Our goal is for people to come in and to keep coming back, and that means offering them something that benefits them and their health that day,” said Banta-Green. “That may be providing them education and materials that keep them from overdosing or getting hepatitis or HIV, those harm-reduction materials. That may be what brings them in that day. It might be that they want treatment medications. It might be that they desperately need wound care. So, we want to offer whatever they need that day that will bring them in and keep them safe that day. And hopefully they’ll engage in things that keep them safe over the long term, as well.”
Learn more about Health Engagement Hubs, Banta-Green and his research at the link below.