ASAM’s newly released 2022-2025 Strategic Plan builds upon ASAM’s existing mission to be the physician-led professional community for those who prevent, treat, and promote remission and recovery from the disease of addiction, and to provide resources for continuing innovation, advancement, and implementation of addiction science and care. The new strategic plan is focused around strengthening ASAM’s membership and the involvement of the health care system in providing addiction medicine, expanding access to addiction treatment and prevention, setting the standards of high-quality care, educating the addiction workforce and the public, and maximizing ASAM’s organizational effectiveness.

ASAM President-Elect Brian Hurley, MD, MBA, FAPA, DFASAM, who chaired ASAM’s 2021 Strategic Planning Task Force, describes how the updated plan specifically includes the goals of supporting and growing ASAM’s membership to increasingly reflect patient and population diversity; ensuring that ASAM’s standards and guidelines attenuate the disparities in addiction health outcomes; and supporting effective public health interventions that reduce the rising trend of substance-related mortality specifically including harm reduction interventions.

“We recognize that addiction has not affected all communities equally, and that communities who experience health disparities related to addiction prevention and treatment are offered disproportionate attention and resources to improve the delivery of this care.”

One new strategy to expand access to addiction care involves reducing criminal legal system interference with the delivery of addiction care.

“We have now explicitly included recommendations on enhancing access to addiction care among those in custody or monitored by the criminal legal system. ASAM advocates to reduce the criminal legal system’s interference with addiction care,” Dr. Hurley said. “To support the need to address substance use as a health issue and addiction as a disease, these recommendations call for the elimination of criminal penalties for personal use drug possession. That's a big shift for ASAM.”

Another big shift, he added, is an expanded focus on what he calls the “wellbeing” of ASAM’s membership.

“’Wellbeing’ from our vantage point is not simply related to whether our members are participating in wellness activities,” he said. “It really means ensuring that addiction treatment is fairly compensated, that addiction physicians are at the table when decisions are being made that affect the deployment of addiction treatment, that we have autonomy in our roles, and that we can advocate for improved treatment and work conditions.”

Another focus of the plan is to “mainstream” addiction care. In the process, Dr. Hurley encourages thinking broadly about where we can embed addiction treatment throughout healthcare system ranging from primary care to hospital care, specialty mental health care, and other medical settings. 

“Addiction treatment belongs in settings across the healthcare enterprise,” he said. “That's what it would take to really move the needle on expanding access to addiction treatment.”

Closing the addiction treatment gap is another critical component of moving the field forward.

“Somewhere between 80 to 90 percent of people with addiction don’t get treatment,” Dr. Hurley said. “We'd like to see that gap close. We'd like to see everybody with addiction get access to treatment.”

Dr. Hurley said he hopes ASAM members will review the Strategic Plan and consider how they could use it within their own sphere of influence. 

“I would want to make sure that our membership is aware of ASAM’s updated strategic plan,” he said. “I'd like for our members to read the Strategic Plan, connect with ASAM leadership to discuss how ASAM can be an effective partner with their local efforts, can consider how we can all can engage in community collaborations that improve public understanding of field of addiction medicine, specifically including opportunities for these collaborations outside of strictly clinical settings. I'd be very interested to hear people's reactions: what they like about the plan and what opportunities our members see for ASAM to improve. Strategic planning is an iterative process. We revise our strategic plan every four years, and we want ASAM members’ voices to be part of that.”