Federal regulators from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Tuesday that doctors must be more cautious when prescribing painkillers. In an attempt to decrease the epidemic of deaths related to narcotics overdose, the CDC encouraged doctors to recommend to their patients physical therapy and over-the-counter medications before prescribing opioids to treat chronic pain.

The CDC is now urging physicians to use non-narcotic drugs in most cases, with the exception of cancer treatment. For patients undergoing palliative and end-of-life care, they recommend only issuing the lowest effective dose of opioids. All other cases, they say, should first be treated without the use of narcotics.

“Overprescribing opioids — largely for chronic pain — is a key driver of America’s drug-overdose epidemic,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden as he made his announcement. “The guideline will give physicians and patients the information they need to make more informed decisions about treatment.”

Critics of these strict guidelines are concerned that this will block patient access to medications. The American Medical Association fears that patients will be directed toward pain treatments that are not covered by insurance. Those in favor of the guidelines believe that this is a positive first step to decreasing widespread narcotics abuse and addiction.

A recent report indicates that over 1.5 billion people worldwide suffer from chronic pain. Since 1999, sales of opium-based painkillers have quadrupled, and in 2014, doctors wrote almost 200 million prescriptions for these drugs in the United States. Meanwhile, nearly 19,000 people have died as a result of opioid-related drug use.

“Used appropriately, opioids are an important tool in treating pain,” stated Dr. Asokumar Buvanendran of the Rush Pain Center in Chicago. “But there are very many safe, non-pharmacological and non-opioid pharmacalogical therapies proven to be as or more effective than opioids that don’t carry the risk of dependence.”

Dr. Buvanendran encourages physicians to educate themselves about the alternatives, such as spinal cord stimulation and epidural injections.

Depression and mental illness don’t discriminate. All over Chicago, adults and teens are experimenting with new programs to help Chicago teens overcome the challenges in their lives.

At Maria Catalyst High School, a new modeling workshop for aspiring young models is teaching these girls about more than just fashion. YK Management: The Workshop program is teaching valuable self-confidence and body positivity to students in the hopes that it will help boost their self-esteem.

Yoshimi Kiosha, 26, is already bringing the intensive, four-week program to South Shore and Dunbar, and hopes to expand it to high schools all over Chicago. Through the after-school program, Kiosha teaches teens about the modeling industry, runway techniques and interview skills, and brings in professional stylists and makeup artists to teach the girls to look and feel their best.

“I used to see myself as fat, and I always thought fat was unhealthy,” said Elizabeth, one of the girls in the Maria Catalyst High School program. “She explained that being bigger than the petite models doesn’t mean that you’re not healthy.”

At the same time, Morehouse College graduate Corey Hardiman is trying to spread his own message of hope among Chicago’s young men. Every spring break, Hardiman and 16 other “Hope Dealers” travel to Chicago’s South Side to speak to young men about getting into college.

“I believe in the philosophy if I don’t see it, I can’t become it, but if I do see it, I have a vision in mind,” Hardiman told DNA Info Chicago. “Hope Dealers is a two-fold thing. It’s to get students politically engaged, educationally inspired, and to challenge the social quota, defying the [black male] stereotype.”

Every day, about 1,400 young people will make a suicide attempt. Teenagers who suffer from depression are 12 times more likely to do so.

Holy Trinity Catholic High School freshman Jonathan Vega, 15, and Jelani Jackson, 14, recently won a competition for their app idea. After some of the teens’ classmates committed suicide, Vega and Jackson participated in the international “World Series of Innovation” competition, winning praise for their app idea.

The Aegis is an app and bracelet that would act as an early warning system if someone is at risk of extreme behavior. One day, the teens hope to put the idea into practice, helping more teens struggling with mental illness to reach adulthood.