Background

The COVID-19 emergency has tested the public health, medical, and public safety infrastructure of the United States (U.S.) in unprecedented ways. As the focal point for public health in their communities, local health departments (LHDs) were particularly impacted by the pandemic’s onset. The pandemic limited the scale and scope of local health department (LHD) work, redirecting resources to the response. However, the need for essential public health services—including substance use prevention—was not reduced.

Methods

Six quantitative data sources were examined, collected between...

Background 

In the United States, access to buprenorphine remains low and disparities regarding who receives treatment have emerged. Federal laws have regulated buprenorphine delivery, ultimately limiting its implementation more broadly. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, federal agencies acted quickly to remove a legal barrier, effectively allowing people with opioid used disorder (OUD) to initiate buprenorphine treatment via telemedicine. Leveraging this policy shift, a low barrier buprenorphine treatment initiative via telemedicine was started at syringe service programs in California...

Abstract

Telemedicine (TM) enabled by digital health technologies to provide medical services has been considered a key solution to increasing health care access in rural communities. With the immediate need for remote care due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many health care systems have rapidly incorporated digital technologies to support the delivery of remote care options, including medication treatment for individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD). In responding to the opioid crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials and scientific communities strongly support and advocate for...

Abstract

Objectives: 

Face-to-face meetings are key components of Twelve Step (TS) fellowships’ support of members’ abstinence. Home confinement during COVID-19 made this less feasible. Our objective was to ascertain whether a transition to virtual online meetings among TS members took place, and whether it was potentially effective.

Methods: 

Two thousand one hundred fifty-two long-standing USA members of Narcotics Anonymous (NA) were surveyed to ascertain their recovery-related experiences and their relation to the transition to virtual meetings.

Results: 

During the previous week (ie...

Abstract

Telehealth has become an increasingly important part of health care delivery, with a dramatic rise in telehealth visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth visits will continue to be a part of care delivery after the pandemic subsides, and it is important that medical students receive training in telehealth skills to meet emerging telehealth competencies. This paper describes strategies for successfully integrating medical students into telehealth visits in the ambulatory setting based on existing literature and the extensive experience of the authors teaching and learning in...

Supporting Access to Telehealth for Addiction Services: Regulatory Overview and General Practice Considerations

The purpose of this document, which was put together by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), is to provide guidance to addiction treatment providers and programs on the regulatory and general practice issues related to the use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Clinical Guidance (“Guidance”) is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is intended to offer physicians guidance regarding best practices in caring for and treating patients...

The Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network, the Center for Excellence on Protected Health Information (CoE-PHI), the National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers, and the Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies (CASAT) at the University of Nevada - Reno (UNR) partnered to develop this new top tips series.

The 8-part top tips series has been developed for substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers and peer-support specialists faced with transitioning their services to the use of telephone and videoconferencing methods in response to COVID-19 social...

In the shadow of COVID-19, telehealth has been pushed to the forefront of service delivery. Everyone is working rapidly to establish quality telehealth systems to replace face-to-face therapeutic encounters with clients.

But for some services, like Turning Point’s Directline, which began operations over 30 years ago, and Counselling Online, the 24 hour web- based counselling service for people concerned about their AOD use, the telehealth experience is ‘business as usual’. These services have an established history of connecting clients to health care providers. Both clinicians and...

Evidence has shown that individuals released from prison are at greater risk of drug overdose in the first 2 weeks post-release compared to the general population. After a period of relative abstinence, the tolerance of people who use opioids is greatly reduced and, as a result, they are at particularly high risk of overdosing if they resume use.

In order to support this particularly vulnerable group of people, the National Institute of Health is developing a new telehealth intervention. To learn how to better prevent relapse and overdose, researchers are testing ways to connect inmates with...