Return To Substance Use

Although pregnancy is motivation for opioid use disorder treatment, there is a risk of relapsing after childbirth. Unpacking Perinatal Experiences with Opioid Use Disorder: Relapse Risk Implications studies the perinatal experiences that can inform clinical social workers and other health/behavioral health providers on when and how to provide support during this time period. 

This webinar will highlight the unique challenges faced by tribal communities in securing safe and secure housing and SUD. The presenters will also discuss how AI/AN communities experience homelessness in relation to the rest of the country

The goal of treatment for opioid addiction or opioid use disorder (OUD) is remission of the disorder leading to lasting recovery. Recovery is a process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live self-directed lives, and strive to reach their full potential.1 This Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) reviews the use of the three Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications used to treat OUD—methadone, naltrexone, and buprenorphine—and the other strategies and services needed to support recovery for people with OUD.

This updated (March 2020) TIP is intended to provide addiction counselors and other providers, supervisors, and administrators with the latest science in the screening, assessment, diagnosis, and management of co-occurring disorders (CODs).

As overdose fatalities increase, reaching a historic peak of over 100,000 deaths in 2020, states are continuing to invest in strategies to improve access to treatment for individuals with substance use disorder (SUD). This rise highlights the issues posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to SUD providers. Disruptions and changes in service delivery, and resulting changes in payment, have posed challenges to efforts to increase access to treatment. Policymakers in some states are starting to use the payments they make to providers and managed care plans as effective levers to increase both treatment access and service quality in their Medicaid programs. This toolkit, which is based on state interviews and documentation, examines Medicaid payment strategies that four states (Arizona, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania) use to improve SUD treatment for Medicaid beneficiaries

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) together with leading clinicians, researchers, and policy experts led the development of a standard clinical definition for opioid withdrawal in infants to help improve care.  It is accompanied with a set of foundational principles that outlines bioethical uses for the definition, distinctly centering around identifying clinical and supportive care needs of mothers and their infants, using an evidence-based, compassionate, and equitable approach.

Americans are tired, frustrated, and burnt-out after two years of living with the pandemic. We are approaching one million deaths that are directly attributable to Covid-19; however, the pandemic’s true toll may be much higher. Drug overdose has been the leading cause of accidental death in the United States for several years, and rates skyrocketed in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Almost two-thirds of people currently incarcerated in the U.S. have a substance use disorder. Many struggle with opioid addiction. Opioids include prescription pain relievers, heroin, and powerful synthetic versions such as fentanyl that are driving record numbers of overdose deaths. Medications used to treat opioid use disorder—also called MOUD—can reduce cravings and symptoms of withdrawal. MOUD include buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone. However, few jails and prisons offer these evidence-based treatments. The study tested whether medications to treat opioid use disorder can reduce recidivism

On May 19, 2021, a total of 28 Lags Medical Center pain management clinics in California abruptly closed, leaving approximately 20,000 patients without pain management.1 The patients who were on long-term opioid therapy received 30 days’ worth of medications and instructions to contact their primary care clinicians or locate new ones. Many patients quickly found that their primary care clinicians were unwilling to prescribe opioids. Patients without a current clinician learned that almost none would prescribe opioids to new patients, and some would not prescribe opioids at all. Referrals to pain management specialists would take as long as 6 months. This article addresses the issue of patient abandonment and efforts to get providers to take on the care of patients who have been on opioids long term. 

This session provided a deep dive into what a peer provider is and confront the direct and indirect challenges and solutions peer providers face.