Associated
Press October 30, 2019
The Trump administration has
unveiled a website aimed at helping millions of Americans with substance abuse
issues learn about and locate treatment options.
FindTreatment.gov is the latest
development in the administration's effort to address the nation's opioid
crisis. The White House said it believes the site, which went up Wednesday,
will enable the tens of millions of Americans with a variety of substance abuse
and mental health issues to better access the care they need.
Kellyanne Conway, the counselor to
President Donald Trump who is leading the White House response to the drug
crisis, said the site is designed to provide "connectivity" between
treatment providers and those who need help.
FindTreatment.gov modernizes an
obscure directory of 13,000 licensed treatment providers maintained by the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, adding user-friendly
search criteria and tools. For instance, it will now allow users to search
based on the type of treatment sought — such as inpatient, detox or
telemedicine — by payment option and whether the treatment is
medication-assisted.
Users also will be able to select
between options that focus on youth, veterans and LGBT Americans.
The website also is meant to be an
educational resource for those needing care and their loved ones with
information on how to pay for treatment.
"We know that the drug crisis
is indiscriminate, so we want the response to be indiscriminate," Conway
said.
The website was built in-house by
government coders and is managed by the White House. The administration is
calling FindTreatment.gov an example of "American-First design" that
offers easy access to information without breaking the federal budget.
"We designed it with
human-centered principles in mind," Conway said. "We used real words
for real people."
The effort included employing a
language expert for help with providing "destigmatizing" explanations
for treatment options to make them more acceptable to those in need.
The site's design was informed by
more than 300 user feedback responses and 60 detailed interviews with those who
have sought treatment, their family members and providers, the White House
said.
The website builds on other efforts
by the White House to address the drug crisis, including law enforcement
efforts, securing billions of dollars from Congress for treatment and working
with the private sector on promoting drug "take back" days.
More than 70,000 Americans died in
2017 from drug overdoses, the bulk of them involving opioids.
Future developments include plans
to more closely integrate the site with the Department of Veterans Affairs to
provide more targeted resources to the community of former service members.
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