Health, Medicine, Nursing Essay: Evidence Base in Design
Discussion 1: Evidence Base in Design
When politics and medical science intersect, there can be much debate. Sometimes anecdotes or hearsay are misused as evidence to support a particular point. Despite these and other challenges, however, evidence-based approaches are increasingly used to inform health policy decision-making regarding causes of disease, intervention strategies, and issues impacting society. One example is the introduction of childhood vaccinations and the use of evidence-based arguments surrounding their safety.
In this Discussion, you will identify a recently proposed health policy and share your analysis of the evidence in support of this policy.
To Prepare:
Review the Congress website provided in the Resources and identify one recent (within the past 5 years) proposed health policy.
Review the health policy you identified and reflect on the background and development of this health policy.
Reference should be 3 to 5
Evidence Base in Design
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Institution
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Evidence Base in Design
The health policy to be analyzed is the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA). This policy was tabled by Sheldon Whitehouse, who is the junior senator of Rhode Island. Whitehouse is a Democratic Party member and has served as a senator since 2007. In 2015, Whitehouse introduced the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. In 2016, the bill was passed into law.
The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act or CARA is a policy that has elicited a lot of interest in the country, mainly because of one thing: the opioid crisis. The bill’s development and adoption into law happened mainly of the opioid crisis that continues to plague the United States. According to the CDC (2020), “almost 450,000 people died from an overdose involving any opioid, including prescription and illicit opioids.” Aside from death, the Department of Health and Human Services or the HHS (2019) notes that there has also been an increase in opioid misuse. The situation is so dire that withdrawal syndrome has been noticed in newborns because of abuse of opioids during pregnancies. The HHS also reports that in 2018 alone, 10.3 million people misused prescription opioids while another 2 million were said to have an opioid disorder. These are staggering numbers and help paint a clear picture of the crisis that plagues the United States. Additionally, these numbers help to affirm or support the decision to table and adopt CARA.
In 40 years, the United States failed to adopt a policy that would help deal with addiction issues even as drug abuse was rising. CARA thus became the first addiction legislation in 40 years. Buoyed by its six pillars, including “prevention, treatment, recovery, law enforcement, criminal justice reform, and overdose reversal,” CARA seeks to tackle the opioid crisis. As Levy (2019) writes, the current opioid crisis has spared no one, including a significant number of teenagers who find themselves grappling with the opioid disorder....