INITIATIVES TO ADDRESS OPIOID USE DISORDER

The NEOMED Department of Psychiatry is collaborating with other NEOMED academic departments and clinical and community-based partners to address the largely unmet treatment needs of the 2.1 million Americans who have opioid use disorder, including the escalating numbers of Americans who are part of the opioid-overdose epidemic.

Training Medical Students

Through a Providers Clinical Support System – Universities grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Department of Psychiatry is providing leadership to expand access to Medication-Assisted Treatment services for opioid use disorder by ensuring that College of Medicine students receive training in topics outlined in the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, including DATA waiver training, and that they have opportunities to shadow physicians providing Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder in community-based psychiatry, family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics and emergency medicine sites as part of their clerkship training. Students will also enhance their clinical skills related to MAT with standardized patients in simulated learning environments. NEOMED expects that these activities will help all of the physicians it trains – regardless of their chosen specialties – to be equipped to and comfortable with treating patients with MAT following completion of residency training. To learn more, please contact  Russell Spieth, Ph.D., CRC, at rspieth@neomed.edu.

Training the Clinical Workforce

The Ohio Opiate Project ECHO program is free and all providers interested in improving access to Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid addiction are welcome to join this virtual community. The Ohio Opiate Project uses video technology to offer two teleECHOs programs focused on Medication-Assisted Treatment for opiate addiction offered in partnership with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services’ Ohio 21st Century Cures Act Initiative. Physician experts offer a two-month mentorship program to assist waivered physicians to feel comfortable prescribing buprenorphine. A new physician cohort begins every two months. In addition, an opiate continuing education teleECHO provides opportunities for buprenorphine prescribers throughout Ohio to learn through didactic presentations and case review with experts.

The benefits of participating include: learning from the collective expertise of multi-disciplinary specialists, including experts trained in addiction medicine; building confidence in caring for opioid-addicted patients and saving lives; joining a supportive network of peers; learning best practice guidelines; and receiving free AMA Category One CME credit through NEOMED. To learn more, email opiateecho@neomed.edu.

Developing Systems-Level Solutions

Sequential Intercept Mapping a community-based application of the Sequential Intercept Model, was recently adapted in Ohio to address the complex challenge of the opioid crisis. Sequential Intercept Mapping for Opioids provides a framework for criminal justice, mental health and addiction treatment providers, family members and opioid-involved individuals, and other stakeholders to develop community-based responses that emphasize prevention, regulation and treatment for opioid dependency with its primary goal is to reduce opioid overdose deaths. In addition to addressing the opioid epidemic, the Department of Psychiatry’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Center of Excellence facilitates Sequential Intercept Mapping to address serious  mental illness in the criminal justice system, serious emotional disability in the juvenile justices i in Ohio.

In Ohio, Sequential Intercept Mapping for Opioids was piloted in a county with one of the highest opioid overdose death rates. The success of the pilot project led to the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services’ decision to use 21st Century Cures Act funds to provide Sequential Intercept Mapping for Opioids to communities with the highest numbers of number of opioid-involved deaths.