Buprenorphine: A Guide for Nurses

This guide is intended to provide nurses (including Registered Nurses (RNs), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), and Nurse Practitioners (NPs)) with general information about buprenorphine products—Suboxone® (buprenorphine and naloxone) and Subutex® (buprenorphine)—for the pharmacological treatment of opioid addiction. The guide can also serve as a resource to help nurses working with community physicians to improve treatment outcomes for individuals receiving office-based treatment for opioid addiction. Read more.

Incorporating Alcohol Pharmacotherapies into Medical Practices

Many health problems or mental disorders that healthcare practitioners (particularly those in primary care) encounter in their everyday practices derive from or are complicated by alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Consequently, healthcare practitioners are in key positions to manage the care of large numbers of individuals with AUDs. However, only a small percentage of these patients are actually treated for AUDs in these settings. Read more.

NIATx Business Case Series – Volume II Now on Line

The NIATx Business Case Series is an ongoing series of case studies that highlight member successes in establishing a business case for process improvment (PI). These success stories demonstrate how an organizational commitment to improving treatment access and retention can help solve key problems fundamental to organizational performance: the ability to operate at a positive margin, the ability to attract funding, and the ability to attract and retain staff members. Read more.

Motivational Incentives (AKA Contingency Management) Lead to Increased Client Retention

Promoting Awareness of Motivational Incentives (PAMI), part of NIDA's Blending Initiative is a multi part resource for substance abuse treatment providers. Successful Treatment Outcomes Using Motivational Incentives in Addiction Treatment contains a very informative 10-minute video, sample policy and procedures, fundraising ideas, forms for clinicians including tracking sheets and recording documents. Also available are ready-to-go PowerPoint presentations that can be used to "sell" the idea of Motivational Incentives to executives and boards. Read more.

A Clinician’s Guide for Implementing Contingency Management Programs

Contingency management (CM) interventions, also sometimes called motivational incentives, are based upon principles of behavioral modification. These procedures stem from token economy approaches that were developed over 40 years ago and are still in place today. The behavioral principles are centered around three basic tenets. First, you arrange the environment such that target behaviors (e.g., drug abstinence) are readily detected; this aspect includes frequent monitoring, such as conducting thrice weekly urinalysis testing. Second, you provide tangible reinforcers whenever the target behavior is demonstrated. In other words, you can give a client a token, a clinic privilege, or a gift certificate whenever she or he tests negative for drugs. Third, when the target behavior does not occur, you systematically withhold these rewards. Sometimes slight punishers may also be delivered (reset time needed to attain take-home methadone privileges) when inappropriate behaviors occur. Read more. [PDF]

Utilizing rapid cycle process improvement to improve access and retention in healthcare settings and to advance organizational strategic goals

This is a recorded presentation.

• Apply the principles of rapid cycle process improvement in a healthcare environment.
• Identifiy how rapid cycle techniques can improve client access to treatment and therefore advance public health goals.
• Articulate the relationship between rapid cycle process improvement approaches and strategic planning.

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SAMHSA-funded Study Shows Receiving Substance Abuse Treatment within 30 Days Following Detoxification Lengthens the Time to Subsequent Relapse

More than one-quarter of patients receiving publicly funded substance abuse detoxification will have a second detoxification readmission within a year. But if patients receive substance abuse treatment on two or more days within 30 days of discharge from a detoxification admission, time to subsequent relapse and readmission lengthens by 40 percent according to findings revealed in a study sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and published in the September 2006 issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

The SAMHSA-funded study was conducted under the SAMHSA Spending Estimates Project and was written by Dr. Tami L. Mark of Thomson Medstat, Rita Vandivort of SAMHSA, and Leslie Montejano of Thomson Medstat. The complete article can be accessed at www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/sat.