Educational Activities Archives

Mutual-help organizations (MHOs) such as Alcoholic Anonymous, SMART Recovery, LifeRing and many others, are ubiquitous across the United States and are found in small, medium, and large cities. They can be a valuable addition to treatment plans and extend the reach of the clinician by providing their patients with ongoing paths to recovery via crucial sober social support that has been found to confer valuable relapse prevention skills. This presentation provides education about the origin, types, scope, and theoretical orientation of a variety of MHOs, including new evidence for their clinical and public health utility, as well as evidence on why they are so helpful. Examples of proven clinical strategies to enhance involvement with MHOs during and following treatment will be provided including for those patients taking medications.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in 2019, only 10% of adults in the U.S with any substance use disorder (SUD) received treatment in part because effective evidence-based treatments for SUDs can be difficult to access in many communities.  CCBHCs help address this issue, delivering easily accessible and effective outpatient behavioral health care and SUD treatment through activities including expanded operating hours, same-day and walk-in appointments, outreach to sidelined populations and moving service delivery beyond clinic walls to reach people in their homes and in the community.

Most treatments and interventions for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) require that individuals engage in interpersonal communication with their health service providers or individuals in their recovery support network. However, at the specific moment when people resume their misuse of opioids, they are often alone or with people who enable their substance use. This webinar will provide information on the utilization of paced breathing exercises, delivered by smartphone, for self-management of drug cravings, stress, and anxiety. This session will include an overview of just-in-time interventions for substance use disorders, the biological basis for paced-breathing effectiveness, and user experience results from a pilot study.

Note: Once the live event has passed, please allow two weeks for the recording to be posted. Webinar Description: The treatment of opioid use disorder in rural communities can be challenging because of transportation, connectivity, and other barriers. Telemedicine can help with those barriers as well, but presents additional challenges. This talk will discuss some of the challenges related to the treatment of opioid use disorder in rural settings. We will discuss the benefits and pitfalls that come with the use of telemedicine. We will also discuss the challenges with obtaining urine toxicology screening and why it may not be a significant problem.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has finalized an overhaul of opioid treatment programs (OTPs) that enshrines many flexibilities first implemented during the crisis response to the COVID pandemic. These changes represent the first significant change to methadone treatment in over 20 years. In this episode, we have Dr. Olsen return to our podcast to talk more about these important policy changes and what providers need to know. Dr. Yngvild Olsen is the director for the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. 

There are not enough treatment providers to meet the needs of our patients with OUD. Telemedicine can increase access to patients who require ongoing substance use disorder treatment. However, there are numerous regulatory, logistical and other clinical questions, which are also rapidly changing, around implementing telemedicine delivery of medication treatment for OUD (tele-MOUD). In this presentation, we will: present evidence on tele-MOUD but focus most of the discussion on clinical considerations in using implementing telemedicine to deliver quality buprenorphine treatment.