Why HEAL?
The opioid crisis in America continues to evolve rapidly and overlaps with other significant public health challenges, including mental illness. Millions of lives are at stake: these are our family members, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. Damage from the opioid crisis reaches across every domain of family and community life:
- Lost productivity and economic opportunity
- Intergenerational and childhood trauma
- Extreme strain on community resources, including first responders, emergency departments, hospitals, and treatment centers
An all-hands-on-deck approach is necessary, and science is an essential component of the solution. The NIH HEAL Initiative is developing and delivering tools and treatments to help end the opioid crisis. The initiative brings together scientists, community members, the private sector, and multiple levels of government.
HEAL’s Overarching Themes
To achieve a balanced yet targeted research portfolio, HEAL centers its efforts around four overarching themes. Given the varied challenges posed by the intertwined crises of opioid misuse and addiction and ineffective pain management, HEAL research must be similarly varied in its scope. Challenges for finding new treatments for pain and addiction are starkly different from determining ways to increase access to evidence-based strategies. HEAL researchers seek to advance health equity in care systems – ensuring that all people can receive the treatments and services they need, regardless of their race and ethnicity, sex, age, income, or where they live.