Overview

An estimated 23 million Americans are addicted to alcohol or drugs. Unfortunately, only one in 10 of them get the treatment they need.  Open Society Foundations (OSF) turned to our team to develop a communications program highlighting the importance of closing the addiction treatment gap.

Our Work

We designed a two-track, multi-year campaign to put a spotlight on the need for increased access to and funding for drug and alcohol addiction treatment.  At a state and local level, we centralized communications support for OSF grantees operating pilot programs in nine states, providing messaging, media-friendly materials and media relations counsel.  Nationally, we developed materials and a media outreach program that leveraged policy discussions at the earliest stages of health care reform to raise awareness about the need for expanded addition treatment services and successful models to help close the addiction treatment gap.

Results

With communications support from our team, OSF grantees and national partners successfully advocated for a number of changes to state and federal addiction treatment policies.