Presenters
- David Eisenberg, MD, Director of Integrated Behavioral Health, The Wright Center for Community Health
- Lisa Tshuma, DBH, MPAS, MPA, PA-C, DipACLM, Assistant Professor and Deputy Director, AT Still University
Summary
Most people with opioid use disorder (OUD) do not get treatment. People who suffer from OUD and other substance use disorders (SUD) are vital in our community. They are our acquaintances, our friends, our neighbors, our family, our colleagues, and even ourselves. The need to widely adopt evidence-based models for OUD team-based care is particularly vital in community health centers (CHCs) because they serve as a safety net for medically underserved populations. Despite the increase in opioid overdose and SUD during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a preponderance of studies supporting primary care models for OUD treatment, not all primary care practices have implemented evidence-based models to meet OUD/SUD community needs and promote care team wellness. This session provides a summary of disparities and barriers to OUD/SUD treatment in primary care which provides a foundation to introduce evidence-based integrated care models for OUD treatment. The presentation will also describe how one CHC adapted and implemented the Massachusetts Collaborative Care Model for Office-Based Opioid Treatment with Buprenorphine (OBOT-B) in response to an unexpected surge in MAT/SUD patients, in a community where wait times for MAT services usually exceeded 4 months! This session will describe the actionable steps that made it possible to successfully meet a rapid increase in OUD/SUD community needs. Practical tools (workflows, protocols, registry), and organizational policy changes to support program outcomes will be shared. Through this case example, the presenters will highlight several organizational characteristics, including CHCs leadership engagement, that increase a primary care practice’s capacity to successfully respond to community OUD/SUD treatment needs. The presentation will conclude with a call to action in which participants will be asked to identify practical steps they can personally take to improve OUD/SUD services for medically underserved patients in their own communities.
Objectives
- Recall at least 5 barriers or disparities related to OUD/SUD integrated care.
- Discuss 3 organizational characteristics that facilitate primary care MAT success in medically underserved populations.
- Identify 2 practical steps to improve care for medically underserved patients with OUD/SUD in one's own community.
