Trainings and Resources

The Opioid Use Disorder, Pregnant Women and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS): Addressing the Challenges (Part II) webinar took place on June 9, 2020.

The course titled, Plans of Safe Care for Infants Exposed to Opioids, educates pediatricians about best practices in caring for, and supporting families affected by prenatal opioid exposure. Advancing the care coordination and patient- and family-centered pediatric medical home framework, the course supports pediatricians in implementing key recommendations outlined in the newly released clinical report, Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome. The topics include, (1) trends and impact of opioid use disorder (OUD) during pregnancy; (2) practical approaches for addressing social attitudes towards pregnant and parenting women with OUD; and (3) discharge planning to support long-term treatment and recovery for the mother-infant dyad during the transition to community care. 

This toolkit is designed primarily for substance use and child welfare practitioners, as well as other service providers and health system planners who offer services to, or design services with, pregnant women and new mothers who use substances. Much is changing in the substance use and child welfare fields to bring forth approaches that are culturally safe, trauma informed, harm reduction-oriented and participant-driven. This toolkit highlights these advances and invites people working in both systems to think about how we can continue to improve our work, in partnership with the women who use these services.

Drug overdose death rates continue to rise in the United States, with significant urban–rural differences in rates by sex, age, and types of drugs involved. This report uses the most recent mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) to examine urban–rural differences in drug overdose death rates for all drugs and by selected types of opioids and stimulants.

Telemedicine is increasingly being used to treat patients with opioid use disorder (OUD). It has particular value in rural areas of the United States impacted by the opioid crisis as these areas have a shortage of trained addiction medicine providers. Patient satisfaction significantly impacts positive clinical outcomes in OUD treatment and thus is of great clinical interest.

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital used publicly available data for the years 1999 to 2019 and found an overall increase of more than 12 percent in age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMR) for rural residents aged 25 to 64 years. While death rates fell among Black individuals, this group had greater AAMRs than all other racial/ethnic groups across both rural and urban environments.  The study, published last week in JAMA, was conducted before the outbreak of COVID-19; authors note the pandemic may have since exacerbated the rural-urban divide they observed.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) awarded nearly $90 million for programs addressing substance use disorder (SUD), and to improve access to maternal and obstetrics care. 

RCORP-TA is offering live Zoom sessions specifically for rural providers who are prescribing or considering prescribing medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and would like to network and have informal discussions with their rural peers throughout the country.