Dear HIFA colleagues,
This Monday 13 April we officially start our in-depth HIFA discussion on the global opioid crisis, with a focus on meeting the information needs of health workers, the general public and policymakers.
Please publicise the discussion widely to your colleagues and networks, by pointing them to our landing page:
https://www.hifa.org/news/hifa-announces-deep-dive-discussion-global-opi...
We have also prepared a reference document for the discussion which we encourage you to download and refer to here:
https://www.hifa.org/sites/default/files/articles/Opioids-10Qs.pdf
We are grateful to NextGenU.org for sponsoring this discussion.
Here are the objectives of our discussion, agreed with our sponsor and the expert volunteers on our working group:
This forum aims to:
• Encourage educational institutions to develop and strengthen resources to address opioid use, especially within primary health care.
• Promote a better understanding among health professionals of the magnitude of the problem and equip them with effective tools to intervene in opioid use disorders.
More than identifying problems, this forum seeks to build collective solutions. The diversity of experiences across countries and regions presents a unique opportunity to move towards:
• More effective and contextualized responses
• Better-prepared health systems
• More balanced and evidence-based public policies that recognize social determinants of substance abuse and the commercial interests that feed them.
• More humane, people-centered, and stigma-free care
Active participation, open exchange, and dialogue among key stakeholders will be fundamental to generating shared learning and moving towards more comprehensive responses.
Your participation is key to this process.
Many thanks, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org