Opioid Settlement FIT Test
🏋️♀️ Do you even lift, bro? 🏋️♀️
Background
FIT stands for Function, Impact, and Trackability. It is a core element in our OPI Opioid Settlement Policy Briefs and complements our Opioid Settlement Quick Rules.
Antonella Peterson
At its core, the FIT Test is a simple way to remind decision-makers to pause and check the fundamentals before making money moves. It's designed to support high-pressure, value-based decisions. We want to ensure settlement dollars stop this crisis and build healthier, more resilient communities.
As always, we’re open to feedback!
Opioid Settlement FIT Test
✅ FUNCTIONAL
Functional opioid settlement spending addresses the causes of opioid-related deaths and disease.
To evaluate function, examine whether the proposal solves a well-defined problem and accounts for real-world factors that influence both the problem and potential solutions.
❓ Decision-makers should ask
Will this spending reduce opioid-related deaths or disease? Where is the evidence?
💡 Decision-makers should understand
The opioid crisis is constantly evolving. Some problems from 2001 (or 1970) are different from the problems today. Others remain the same. Functional spending is not fighting yesterday's problem. Functional spending uses today’s solutions for today’s problems.
✅ IMPACTFUL
Impactful opioid settlement spending prioritizes people directly affected by the opioid crisis.
To evaluate impact, examine whether data or documented experience shows that the proposal reduces opioid-related death and disease among the most at-risk people. The people directly affected by the crisis (those with lived and living experience) can best speak to how impactful a spending decision will be.
❓ Decision-makers should ask
Who benefits? How do we know this spending reaches the people most impacted by the opioid crisis? How does the impact align with the costs?
💡 Decision-makers should understand
Opioid settlement money is available to decision-makers because of the severe impact of opioids in our community. Prioritize the needs of people most affected by the crisis.
✅ TRACKABLE
Trackable opioid settlement spending must be transparent and measurable.
To evaluate trackability, examine whether the decision-making process was meaningfully open to community input and whether the community can determine if the proposal achieved its goals.
❓ Decision-makers should ask
What metrics will show the spending is successful? Who tracks this? How are results reported to the community?
💡 Decision-makers should understand
Your community was negatively impacted by the opioid crisis. They deserve to know how the pain that resulted in the opioid settlement money is used to prevent further harm to their communities and help support healing.
Why You Should Use the FIT Test
Spending opioid settlement money is difficult. There are competing interests, heightened emotions, and urgent needs. The FIT Test cuts to the core of spending considerations by surfacing Function, Impact, and Trackability before money is committed. It gives everyone a shared framework for discussing complex spending decisions and focuses the conversation on what's likely to work and how we'll know if it did.
One Last Thought
Opioid settlement dollars are a rare opportunity for our communities to stop this crisis and improve health and well-being. The FIT Test helps ensure that opportunity isn’t wasted.
Have you seen waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanaged spending in your community?
Report it to our database!
Related Writing
Antonella Peterson
Antonella Peterson
Opioid Policy Institute by Jonathan JK Stoltman, PhD is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
