Resources

The Council of State Governments' (CSG) National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC) has released a fact sheet on Best Practices for Successful Reentry for People Who Have Opioid Addictions. The fact sheet describes the best practices that correctional, community-based behavioral health, and probation and parole agencies can implement within their systems to ensure that reentry for people who have opioid addictions is safe and successful. The document provides an overview of ten ways in which the professionals in these agencies can help ensure success, which fall under the following categories: planning and coordination, behavioral health treatment and cognitive behavioral interventions, probation and parole supervision, and recovery support services.

As the Building Bridges Between Jail and Community-Based Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder (Bridges) sites continue planning for implementation of multiple forms of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in their local jails and communities, it is important to identify data to collect that can inform implementation efforts, as well as measure performance and outcomes. This webinar presentation by BJA includes a discussion of the types of questions Bridges communities may want to answer about their projects as well as the performance measures that will be required for sites that may wish to pursue BJA funding, if available in the future. The discussion also includes identification of specific data elements from across the justice and health sectors that sites should consider collecting.

A PDF version of the slide deck from this webinar is also available.

Information is included on dosing, complicating factors, diagnosing opioid withdrawal, and more.

The Criminogenic Risk and Behavioral Health Needs framework introduced state leaders and policymakers to the concept of prioritizing supervision and treatment resources for people based on their criminogenic risks and needs, as well as their behavioral health needs.

This paper examines the varying approaches states have taken to connect eligible people who are released from prison and jail to the mental health care and substance use treatment they need by ensuring health care coverage through some combination of Medicaid, SSI/SSDI, and veterans’ benefits.

District attorneys are leaders called upon to address a range of issues to keep their communities safe. In many communities, addiction has a major impact on health, safety, and the job of prosecutors. In this course, you will learn about the basic brain science of addiction and trauma. The ways in which prosecutors can expand their response to addiction are also covered.

The Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network Coordinating Office (NCO), funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA), designed this competency-based guide to raise awareness of resources available to build the capacity of the workforce to address the opioid crisis. The digital guide is relevant to psychologists, counselors, social workers, peer support workers, and other behavioral health professionals who intersect with people at risk for misuse of, or who are already misusing,opioids. Contemporary use of prescription or illicit opioids has led to the current opioid crisis in the United States, where opioid overdose has increased fivefold since 1999 and where every day more than 115 people die of an opioid overdose. It is important to acknowledge the continuum of prevention, treatment, and recovery when addressing people who have, or are at risk of developing, an opioid use disorder. Therefore, the guide has been organized to align with this continuum.

Transitional or supportive housing and homeless shelters can help stabilize people with mental health issues and substance use disorders who are experiencing homelessness.

Telehealth Resource Centers (TRCs) have been established to provide assistance, education, and information to organizations and individuals who are actively providing or interested in providing health care at a distance. Our simple charter from the Office for Advancement of Telehealth is to assist in expanding the availability of health care to rural and underserved populations. And because we are federally funded, the assistance we provide is generally free of charge.

It summarizes the requirements of the federal SUD confidentiality rules set forth under 42 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 2, discusses the steps that primary care practices currently take to effectively coordinate SUD care without violating the rules, suggests additional compliance strategies that might enhance data sharing, and offers for consideration modest revisions to the rules that could promote the integration of care without undermining patient privacy.

This document is intended to assist community-based behavioral health providers in their clinical and case management practice with people with mental and substance use disorders who are currently involved with or have a history of involvement in the adult criminal justice system. The focus of this document is on services provided in the community rather than in institutional settings (i.e., jail, prison, or hospital). The information provided is intended to be used in practice, and is therefore appropriate for any staff providing direct services in community settings. However, to practice these principles, organizations may need to reconsider staff training, evidence-based practices, and other programmatic elements to ensure that staff providing direct services have the information, policy support, and resources needed. This document is also intended for agency leaders and program developers who are responsible for shaping how their organizations deliver community-based services. The Principles provide a foundation for realizing a quality, community-based behavioral health treatment system that is responsive to all individuals with mental and substance use disorders and skilled in serving those with histories of justice involvement.

Despite probation’s role in assisting individuals to obtain treatment and services related to criminogenic needs—including substance misuse and SUDs—there is still only minimal information about what barriers probation departments face when assisting their clients. This study addresses this gap in knowledge. Because evidence-based treatment incorporates an individualized treatment plan, probation clients with OUD should have information and the ability to access all medication options available to them, as deemed appropriate by a medical professional—not a judge, probation officer, or other correctional staff. The current study adds to the research and further explored the perspectives of probation department directors and administrators on how they perceive their agency responds to probationers with OUDs, focusing on the barriers to accessing medications, as well as probation departments’ familiarity with, and training on, each of the three FDA-approved OUD medications.

This resource offers planners a tool for building effective programs that incorporate the best research currently available. These essential elements can help courts achieve the goal of preventing overdose deaths while offering individuals and families impacted by opioid use disorders the support they need to start down the long road to recovery. Practitioners everywhere are urged to put these essential elements into action.

Research findings in the following seven areas are reviewed: location of buprenorphine induction, combining buprenorphine with a benzodiazepine, relapse during buprenorphine treatment, requirements for counseling, uses of drug testing, use of other substances during buprenorphine treatment, and duration of buprenorphine treatment. For each area, evidence for needed updates and modifications in practice is provided. These modifications will facilitate more successful, evidence-based treatment and care for patients with OUD.