 The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration runs a free 24/7 phone line, Indiana 211, that helps connect individuals living in Indiana with health and human services agencies within their local communities. Indiana 211 can help connect Hoosiers with numerous resources, including peer recovery coaching. Anyone in need can dial 211 and ask to be connected to a peer recovery coach for confidential service. The 211 website also provides reports of highlighting the needs of Hoosiers based on the service requests they receive in that month.
 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released new buprenorphine practice guidelines to promote evidence-based treatment. Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) has long been the gold-standard opioid use disorder treatment. The new guidelines exempt eligible physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified registered nurse anesthetists and certified nurse midwives from federal certification requirements for treating up to 30 patients at once. The increase in overdoses seen during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need to remove barriers to high quality treatment for opioid use disorders and this new guideline will likely go a long way in combatting the overdose epidemic.
Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) is working to add the Hope Academy, Indiana’s only recovery high school to its charter school partners. The Hope Academy recently moved to the city’s south side to increase accessibility specifically to students of color. Partnering with IPS would serve to strengthen this initiative. Rachelle Gardner, executive director of the Hope Academy believes this partnership will be beneficial in a couple ways including expanding to serve all students in the IPS district and aiding teachers and staff in the IPS district to understand more about substance-impacted students. This collaboration would also ease the referral process and will allow the Hope Academy to expand from 35 students to 65 students.
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