Resource Search Results

Billing, Coding, Documentation & Quality Series, Part II: Treating Substance/Opioid Use Disorders via Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) in Community Health (2021). By providing CMS-covered Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) services in the treatment of Substance/Opioid Use Disorders (SUD and OUD) your community health center’s clinical providers may be eligible for a more full range of loan repayment programs while providing desperately needed services to patients who need help with the medical and behavioral health issue related to this other public health emergency. More Details...

Addressing the Opioid Crisis: Innovative Programs Serving People Experiencing Homelessness: Health center case studies for the Opioid Crisis. (2020). Health centers are increasingly seeing individuals who are suffering from Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and other Substance Use Disorders (SUDs), and many of these individuals are also faced with housing instability or are experiencing homelessness. Innovation is being driven at the ground level by providers including health centers, public health departments, harm reduction agencies and supportive housing agencies that are all concerned with the impact of OUD and other SUDs on the health of the people they serve. Essential in any innovative care model are the services needed to ensure people experiencing homelessness have access to evidence-based care, including Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT). More Details...

Healing Hands: Harm Reduction (2020). This edition of Healing Hands from the Health Care for the Homeless Clinicians' Network explores how harm reduction principles apply to various clinical settings and explains why the philosophy is so critically important. More Details...

Addressing the Opioid Crisis: Innovative State Responses: Companion paper to Opioid Crisis webinar series highlights strategies states and local providers have developed to service the hardest hit populations (2020). The recent increase in federal funding to address the opioid crisis presents health centers the opportunity to expand partnerships with supportive housing and substance use disorder providers. This brief for health center partners summarizes promising practices in three states; explores a managed care organization’s work with its members to address the opioid epidemic; and ways for health centers to incorporate these practices into their OUD services. More Details...

Addressing the Opioid Crisis: Federal Funding and Opportunities for Health and Housing Collaboration: Focus on Resources and Partnerships (2020). There are a variety of state and federal resources available to aide health centers in providing services and housing connections to patients they treat with Opioid and substance use disorders. This brief describes the role of single state authorities (SSAs) who are responsible for managing the publicly funded substance abuse prevention, treatment and recovery system, new federal funding targeting the opioid crisis and opportunities for collaboration in your community. More Details...

Reducing Harm for People Using Drugs & Alcohol During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Guide for Alternative Care Sites (2020). People experiencing homelessness cannot recover or protect themselves from COVID-19 at home. Therefore, Alternative Care Sites are being developed to accommodate such clients. This issue brief is intended to provide managers of alternative care sites, including health centers, with a framework for serving individuals with SUD in isolation and quarantine, and reducing possible harmful consequences. More Details...

Pain Management & Opioid Misuse Learning Collaborative: Session 1: Cultural Dimensions of Pain Management (2019). While the assessment and treatment of pain is a universally important health care issue, modern medicine still struggles to agree on a method to measure pain perception. Difference among individuals based on culture, gender, age and a variety of characteristics means that although nearly all people experience pain sensations similarly, studies show there are important differences in the way people express their pain and expect others to respond to their discomfort. There are often conflicting attitudes about using pain medication. An understanding of the impact of culture on the pain experience is important in assuring effective patient care. This session will review a series of considerations when developing and approach to pain management, addressing some of the most common issues faced by patients and providers. More Details...

Opioids and Homelessness - The Support Act of 2018 -: The Support Act of 2018 - New Resource and Stakeholder Engagement to Influence Strategies to address the Opioid Crisis  (2018). Federal resources became available under the Support Act of 2018 to address the Opioid Crisis. Health centers on the front lines need to understand these new resource supports and how to access funding. More Details...

Innovative Programming and Partnering for People Experiencing Opioid Addiction - Series Part III: Challenges and strategies to address the opioid crisis among those facing homelessness and especially the unsheltered homeless population. (2019). Communities are developing innovative programs to address the needs of people experiencing opioid addiction and in particular those who are also experiencing homelessness or housing instability. Join leaders from Philadelphia, San Diego and San Francisco who are developing program models to address those needs. More Details...

How Medical-Legal Partnership Services Can Help Address the Opioid Crisis (2018). This issue brief from the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership examines how legal services delivered alongside medical and behavioral health services can help support successful recovery from substance use disorders. More Details...

A Team-Based Approach to Improving Opioid Management in Primary Care for Vulnerable Populations (2019). Prescription opioid use and misuse have reached a crisis level in the U.S., with roughly 58 opioid prescriptions for every 100 residents in 2017 and more than 46 people dying daily from overdoses involving prescription opioids. (Source: Centers for Disease Control Opioid Prescribing Rate Maps). Although treatment plans and improved support options for managing opioid medications for individuals with chronic pain are being developed, implementing these evidence-based strategies in real world primary care settings can be challenging. Community and healthcare centers that treat patients who use opioids long-term for their chronic pain struggle with this issue and need tools and structured guidance in order to make meaningful change. This session will introduce the Six Building Blocks program which provides an evidence-based quality improvement roadmap to help primary care teams implement effective, guideline-driven care for their chronic pain and long-term opioid therapy patients. The session will discuss lessons learned during the implementation of this program and address key elements needed to transform systems of care. Faculty will also discuss upcoming opportunities for more in depth training and resource development designed to address pain management and opioid misuse in the primary care setting. More Details...

Center of Excellence for Protected Health Information: FOCUS: PHI is a SAMHSA-funded source for clear and accurate information about patient privacy and confidentiality (2019). Clear and accurate information about confidentiality is important to ensure that patient privacy is protected and that privacy laws are not erroneously interpreted to prevent disclosure of patient information. Individuals living with mental illness or substance use disorders may not seek care without guarantees of confidentiality and privacy protections. Clarifying privacy protections and promoting communication of patient records is critical for improving patients’ access to care and quality of treatment once in care. The Center for Excellence for Protected Health information is supported by SAMHSA and includes key resources around privacy and confidentiality. More Details...

Hepatitis B and the Opioid Epidemic: Opportunities to Increase Adult Vaccination: Webinar Resources (2019). This webinar focuses on strategies to prevent and eliminate hepatitis B as a U.S. public health threat, particularly among special and vulnerable populations impacted by the opioid epidemic. To access the slides and recording, follow the link provided More Details...

Addressing the Opioid Crisis: Medication-Assisted Treatment at Health Care for the Homeless Programs (2019). This paper outlines strategies for how Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) programs can start or expand medication-assisted treatment (MAT) services to address the opioid epidemic. While HCH programs serve only four percent of all health center patients nationally, they are responsible for serving nearly 40 percent of all patients receiving MAT. More Details...

HITEQ Highlights: Using Health Information Technology to Enhance Opioid Use Disorder Treatment (2019). The Health Information Technology, Evaluation, and Quality Center (HITEQ) hosted this webinar on promising and innovative practices for the use of health information technologies (IT) to enhance opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment. The webinar also featured the experiences and practices of health centers which are currently using health IT to enhance OUD services. More Details...

State Strategies Working with Health Centers to Address the Opioid Crisis: Practical approaches and funding opportunities for Health Centers, supportive housing providers and States confronting the opioid crisis. (2019). Health Centers and supportive housing providers are confronting the opioid crisis head on in communities across the country with positive results. This session of a 2-part series highlights strategies of working with state agencies. More Details...

HUD Policy Brief for Health Centers - Recovery Housing: Understanding the Role and Impact of Housing Policy for Health Centers (Recovery Housing) (2019). Effective health and housing parterships are particularly relevant for those individuals and families facing the challenges of substance use disorders combined with precarious housing stability. This HUD policy brief builds an understanding for health centers on housing policy and approach to recovery housing More Details...

Sharing Behavioral Health Information for Treatment Purposes: Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder (2019). As health centers continue to integrate behavioral health services to meet their patients' needs for mental health and substance use disorder services, they must be aware of their responsibility to comply with applicable federal, state, and community standard of care confidentiality requirements. This fact sheet is designed to clarify under what circumstances and by what methods behavioral health information may be shared for treatment purposes, including discussion of HIPAA and Title 42 CFR Part 2. More Details...

Medication-Assisted Treatment: Buprenorphine in the HCH Community (2016). This policy brief discusses buprenorphine treatment in the HCH environment, identifying challenges to treatment and recommendations for both clinical practice and public policy change needed to increase access to care. It is also the broader hope that the information in this policy brief can help prevent further deaths from opioid addiction, inform clinical training needs, influence how communities respond to addiction treatment, improve public health, and promote a more seamless integration of addiction treatment with primary care services. More Details...

Integrating Buprenorphine Therapy for Opioid Use Disorder into Health Centers (2019). This fact sheet addresses the role for health centers in prescribing buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid use disorder. The fact sheet presents key clinical challenges associated with buprenorphine prescribing along with strategies to mitigate them. The fact sheet also describes how different aspects of clinical and financial operations can be impacted by integration of buprenorphine therapy into primary care. A robust list of resources is included. More Details...