Strategies

Allow eligible patients to use marijuana for medical purposes; often called medical marijuana laws (MMLs)

Integrate legal services into health care settings to address legal issues that affect health (e.g., housing, food, utilities); services provided by private practice lawyers, law students, etc.

Provide medications such as methadone to individuals diagnosed with opioid use disorder in outpatient, residential, and hospital settings, usually with counseling and behavioral therapies; often called MAT

Regulate mental health insurance to increase access to mental health services, including treatment for substance use disorders

Provide an 8 or 12 hour training to educate laypeople about how to assist individuals with mental health problems or at risk for problems such as depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders

Deliver health care services and support to individuals with mental health concerns via mobile devices using text messaging or mobile apps

Use an intensive, family- and community-based intervention that addresses individual, family, and environmental risk factors that affect antisocial behaviors among adolescents who have committed serious offenses

Attract new grocery stores that sell a variety of fresh foods, baked goods, packaged, and frozen items to underserved areas via financing initiatives, tax incentives, or zoning regulation

Use regulation to extend nurse practitioners’ (NPs’) scope of practice to provide care to the full scope of their training and skills without physician oversight, especially for primary care

Provide prescriptions with healthy eating goals for patients and families, often accompanied by progress checks at office visits and vouchers or other healthy food provisions; can include partnerships with local farmers markets or grocery stores