One year ago this week, President Donald J. Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. Ever since, the Trump Administration has applied an all-of-Government approach to the epidemic, allowing each agency and department to do their part to help the cause.
This is a crisis that cannot be solved through Government action alone. Private-sector and nonprofit partners are stepping up and stepping in to make a difference. Today, President Trump hosted 21 of these organizations at the White House. Their work is innovative, groundbreaking, and promising for the millions of Americans who struggle with addiction or support loved ones who do.
Amazon
Mr. Brian Huseman, Vice President, Public Policy
Amazon will help first responders more efficiently access critical medical records and has programmed Alexa voice service to answer important questions about opioids and addiction.
Belden Industries
Mr. John Stroup, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board
Belden will expand their rehab and employment program to two additional U.S. facilities in 2019 and provide a Blueprint for companies to adopt to recruit and retain employees supporting recovery.
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
Mr. Scott P. Serota, President and CEO
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association will launch Blue Distinction® Centers for Substance Use Treatment and Recovery and will establish a toll-free national hotline to provide all Americans a way to locate designated treatment centers.
Cigna
Mr. Alan Muney, Chief Medical Officer
Cigna will partner with the Veterans Health Administration to help veterans manage pain, improve access to opioid addiction treatment and improve mental well-being, and will work to reduce opioid-related overdoses in various communities by 25 percent within three years.
CVS Health
Mr. Thomas Moriarty, Executive Vice President, Chief Policy & External Affairs Officer, and General Counsel
CVS Health is committed to installing 1,100 additional permanent medication disposal units in communities and reaching 250,000 students and parents with its opioid abuse prevention program by the end of 2019.
Dispose RX
Mr. John Holaday, CEO
DisposeRx is committed to stopping opioid abuse, by contributing DisposeRx packets that can remove over 10 million opioids from our nation’s medicine cabinets.
Emergent BioSolutions
Mr. Mike Kelly, President US Operations
Emergent BioSolutions will offer Free NARCAN® Nasal Spray to all 16,568 public libraries and to each of the 2,700 YMCA locations in the United States.
Facebook
Mr. Kevin Martin, Vice President, US Public Policy
Facebook is committed to addressing the opioid epidemic through impactful public-private partnerships including: a link to SAMHSA’s Helpline in Search, and supporting the Ad Council PSA and DEA Takeback Day.
Global Teen Challenge
Mr. Ed DeShields, Board Member
Global Teen Challenge, the largest treatment center worldwide, is building a national Treatment Information System so its 250 U.S. treatment centers can understand which recovery programs are showing the most promise of success from addiction.
Google
Ms. Susan Molinari, Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs
Google has created a Locator Tool for National Take Back Day that they’ll promote on the Google.com homepage, and will launch a partnership with Walgreens to display permanent drug disposal locations on Google Maps.
Johnson & Johnson
Ms. Linda Murray, Senior Vice President, Consumer Experience and Global Editor in Chief, BabyCenter
Johnson & Johnson will continue educating America’s nurses and physicians to fight substance abuse and launched an opioid addiction awareness campaign that reached more than 2.5 million expectant parents via BabyCenter.
Leidos
Mr. Roger Krone, Chairman and CEO
Leidos is committing to an additional $3 million to opioid related causes, and furthering efforts to educate our workforce of 32,000 employees and launching a coalition of dozens of companies to address the crisis.
MyPillow
Mr. Mike Lindell, CEO
MyPillow employs workers directly after graduating from faith-based drug treatment and will soon launch the Lindell Recovery Network to bring hope, recovery and mentorship to thousands struggling with opioid addiction.
National Head Start Association
Mr. Damon Carson, Board Chairman
The Head Start community will expand training to all 245,792 staff in over 21,000 centers nationwide to address the far-reaching impacts of parent substance-use disorder on young children and families
National Safety Council
Ms. Debbie Hersman, CEO
National Safety Council will spread awareness of the crisis through the Prescribed to Death traveling Memorial, and will educate 1,000 more physicians on safer prescribing practices.
Red Cross
Mr. Jack McMaster, President, American Red Cross Training Services
Red Cross will offer our online course, First Aid for Opioid Overdoses, to give all Americans the knowledge to respond to a suspected opioid overdose emergency and will integrate opioid education in over 3 million annual first aid trainings.
Rite Aid
Ms. Jocelyn Konrad, Executive Vice President for Pharmacy
Rite Aid is offering free DisposeRx packets with new opioid prescriptions. Its Foundation installed 312 medication disposal units and launched the Prescription Drug Safety Initiative for students across the country.
Ultimate Fighting Championship
Mr. Lawrence Epstein, Senior Executive Vice President and COO
UFC commits to launching a public service campaign to bring attention to the opioid crisis, using UFC athletes, its powerful social media platforms, and popular live events to educate millions of people on the dangers of opioid abuse.
Unshattered
Ms. Kelly Lyndgaard, Founder and CEO
Unshattered will expand their partnerships with recovery centers across the county and provide employment and job skills training to double the number of women that we serve by the end of 2020.
Walgreens
Mr. Rick Gates, Walgreens Senior Vice President for Pharmacy and Health Care
Walgreens is expanding its medication disposal program to all of its stores, and collaborating with Google to provide information about the location of disposal sites on Google’s platform.
Walmart
Mr. Paul Beahm, Senior VP of Health and Wellness Pharmacy Operations
Walmart will continue to limit initial, acute opioid prescriptions to a 7-day supply, use analytics to block illegitimate prescriptions, and require E-Prescriptions for all scheduled drugs by January 1, 2020.
