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Support is needed for legislation and funding to promote the Stepping Up Initiative developed by the <br />National Association of Counties, the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the American <br />Psychiatric Foundation to help encourage counties to develop and implement efforts to reduce the <br />number of people with mental illnesses in county jails. <br /> <br />Fund Programs Addressing The Opioid Epidemic ** <br />The United States is in the midst of an unprecedented opioid epidemic. More people died from drug <br />overdoses in 2014 than in any year on record, and the majority of drug overdose deaths (more than six <br />out of ten) involved an opioid. Since 1999, the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids – including <br />prescription opioid pain relievers and heroin—nearly quadrupled, and over 165,000 people have died <br />from prescription opioid overdoses. Prescription pain medication deaths remain far too high, and in <br />2014, the most recent year on record, there was a sharp increase in heroin-involved deaths and an <br />increase in deaths involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. <br />The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Opioid Initiative targets three key areas that <br />build on efforts to address the opioid epidemic and seek to expand evidence-informed strategies that <br />have the greatest potential for impact - improving prescribing practices, expanding access to and the use <br />of medication-assisted treatment, and expanding the use of naloxone. Much progress has been made, <br />but efforts to turn the tide of the opioid epidemic is significantly limited. Adequate funding is needed <br />for the Opioid Initiative and other programs to support expanding access for individuals with opioid use <br />disorder to seek and complete treatment, and sustain recovery. <br />8