By Alison Knopf
Produced by the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) under a contract with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, three white papers provide comprehensive models of how opioid treatment programs (OTPs) can ensure high-quality care and continuity of services.
We summarize the white papers in this issue, focusing on the hub-and-spoke model in Vermont. In this model, buprenorphine and office-based opioid treatment are integrated with OTPs, but OTPs perform all inductions and provide specialty care and consultation to the entire system.
The first white paper (56 pages) is called “Models of Integrated Patient Care Through OTPs and DATA 2000 Practices.” The first section of this paper discusses “Essential Elements of Vermont’s Hub and Spoke Health Homes Model,” and was written by Karen Casper and Anthony Folland of the Vermont Department of Health, Agency of Human Services. The second section, by Sue Storti, PhD, RN, is “Integration of Health Homes in Rhode Islands’ OTPs.” The third section covers “Integration of Health Homes in Maryland OTPs,” and was written by Vickie Walters and Angela Fulman.
The second AATOD white paper (34 pages) is “Integrated Service Delivery Models for Opioid Treatment Programs in an Era of Increasing Opioid Addiction, Health Reform, and Parity.” The first section of this publication was written by Kenneth Stoller, MD, and Mary Ann Stephens, MD, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the John Hopkins University School of Medicine. It provides a model for how OTPs can work in conjunction with DATA 2000 practices. The second section was written by Allegra Schorr, President of the New York State Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates. It is concerned with how OTPs can work with primary health care services.
The third white paper (32 pages) is “Increasing Access to Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Addiction in Drug Courts and Correctional Facilities and Working Effectively with Family Courts and Child Protective Services.” Douglas Marlowe, PhD, Chief of Science, Policy and Law of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, wrote the first section of this paper, covering working with Drug Courts. The second section delves into working with correctional facilities, and was written by Sarah Wakeman, MD, of the Substance Use Disorder Initiative, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Josiah Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, Brown University. Pamela Peterson Baston, of Solutions of Substance, Inc., wrote the third section; it discusses how OTPs can work with Family Courts and Child Protective Services.