APA Part of AAAP Coalition to Expand Opioid Treatment

APA is part of a broad coalition of 22 national health care associations that were awarded a $12 million grant by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to expand the availability of treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). Leading the coalition is the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP).

About 2.4 million Americans have OUD, but less than half of counties offer medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and counseling services, which together have been shown to boost successful recovery rates for these individuals, AAAP said. In fact, only a small proportion of primary care providers certified to prescribe MAT therapies offer such treatment to their patients.

The grant will support the efforts of the State Technical Assistance Team Education and Support (STATES) Consortium, which is an alliance of physicians, other medical professionals, and public and behavioral health organizations that are combining forces to address the opioid epidemic. The STATES Consortium is working to boost the number of health care professionals who are experienced in OUD prevention and recovery and certified to prescribe the three FDA-approved medications for its treatment: buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone.

The initiative is needed because many underserved and rural areas do not have addiction specialists available to treat patients with OUD or a substance use disorder (SUD), so other health care professionals need to learn these skills, too, explained Jane Goodger, outreach and communications coordinator at AAAP.

“Primary care providers may not feel as comfortable or confident or may not have the skillset to treat these patients,” Goodger said. “With this grant, we want to ensure everyone within the health care system understands evidence-based practices for substance use disorder treatment and uses a holistic approach. It’s not just writing a prescription; it’s finding out why this person has an opioid use disorder and figuring out how we can make sure he or she stays in treatment.”

As one of the participating organizations, APA will receive about $220,000 to promote the initiative to members and launch 32 online learning collaboratives across the country. Over the next two years, the collaboratives will train a range of medical professionals on how to implement evidence-based treatment programs for people with OUD as well as other SUDs. The 12-week collaboratives will focus on skill development and overcoming barriers specific to their region or area of specialty.

Each collaborative will be created around a specific region or topic, such as telepsychiatry, the creation of a MAT delivery system from the ground up, and state and federal SUD policy. Another will work with child and adolescent SUD treatment professionals. At least one of the collaboratives will work with directors and instructors who help train medical students and residents.

“If we can get our faculty and residents more skilled in teaching about the treatment of substance use disorders, then we can impact the workforce early,” said Tristan Gorrindo, M.D., director of APA’s Division of Education.

Participants will complete a project as part of the 12-week programs, and they will earn continuing medical education credits. Each collaborative will have a professional facilitator, discussion boards, and call-in hours during which the group can gather in real time to work on issues. The first collaborative will be launched later this spring.

Some organizations partnering in the coalition along with APA include the AMA, American Academy of Family Physicians, National Council for Behavioral Health, and National Association of Community Health Centers. ■