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Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
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White Paper/Brief
This article discusses the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) distribution of $1.3 million in grants to organizations studying the potential permanent adoption of COVID-19 care access measures to promote health equity in opioid use disorder treatment. The grants aim to investigate the impact of temporary policies, such as virtual care, on access to care and patient outcomes. The studies will explore how relaxed prescribing policies for buprenorphine, telehealth strategies, and other COVID-19 measures have affected patient access and outcomes, particularly among underserved populations. The research will inform evidence-based policies to sustain access to better care beyond the pandemic and address the ongoing opioid crisis.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
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Peer Review Study, Summary Report/Recommendations
Article outlines how an opioid treatment program in the Bronx, NY adjusted their clinical practice with COVID-19 and their recommendations for treatment programs going forward. Balancing Covid-19 safety and the need to safely administer medications for opioid use disorder, this program ultimately made changes that allowed for more patient-driven treatment plans that enable fewer in person clinic visits. The article advocates for patient-centered care that encourages people to safely self-manage medication, focusing on patient-centered measures in clinical decision-making, and making appropriate changes to payment/insurance models that allow for such patient-centered care.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
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Peer Review Study
This article conducts a retrospective case-control study of electronic health records of individuals who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and have a recent diagnosis of substance use disorder (SUD). The results show that those diagnosed with SUD, particularly African Americans and those with opioid use disorder (OUD), are more likely to contract COVID-19, as well as suffer worsening outcomes such as hospitalization and mortality due to COVID-19. This article shows that an increase in SUD screening could be a factor in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in this community.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
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Peer Review Study
This resource discusses the results of the 2020 COVID-19 Resiliency Survey, which was conducted in Chicago, Illinois to gauge the impact of COVID-19 on the city during their first wave of cases. Specific focus is given to the experiences of minority groups, both racial/ethnic and sexual/gender minorities. The results show that these marginalized groups – specifically Black, Latinx, sexual minority and gender minority groups – experience more disparities in COVID-19 exposure, susceptibility, treatment access, and psychosocial effects from the pandemic. The resource offers solutions to reducing these disparities.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
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Case Study, Key Informant Interview
This case study discusses how Hawaii’s Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) partnered with state housing services to organize isolation and quarantine services for people experiencing homelessness. This department also focused on substance use disorder and mental illness, so they worked to build partnerships with treatment centers that individuals could enter after quarantine. The BHA has also focused on braiding funding sources between substance use disorder and homelessness efforts to provide more wraparound services and combat the siloization of different departments.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
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Peer Review Study
Members of many underserved communities have long seen worse health outcomes, and this has been exacerbated by COVID-19. This article describes certain strategies that health departments, hospitals, universities, service providers, and others have used to engage and partner with members of underserved communities. In Chicago, health departments, hospitals, service providers, and community organizations formed an alliance that met daily to coordinate services for people experiencing homelessness. The Navajo Nation partnered with health departments and hospitals to create a health command center to get aid to people, test and contact trace, and collect funding. An alliance in Albuquerque used community based participatory research (CBPR) to complete strategic planning regarding mitigating COVID-19 among people experiencing homelessness. Other cities also used CBPR or saw grassroots efforts to partner wit health departments to increase aid and funding to communities with the greatest need.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
RELEASE DATE:
Peer Review Study
This study describes harm reduction and health services provided by the U.S. syringe services programs (SSPs) in 2019 and changes in provision of those services in 2020. Many SSPs that offered health services in 2019 and remained operational in 2020 increased telehealth provision of mental health and primary care services, increased MOUD provision, and expanded harm reduction services, but most SSPs reduced or stopped on-site HIV and HCV testing. With the record high opioid overdose fatality rates in 2020, sustaining the trajectory of SSP growth and innovation leading up to and through 2020 requires ensuring adequate and flexible funding to support the life-saving work of SSPs in preventing future overdose deaths and outbreaks of HIV and HCV.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
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Case Study
This article summarizes COVID-19 harm reduction approaches taken by a family medicine/OBGYN residency program serving rural, western North Carolina for patients with an opioid use disorder. To meet patient needs, low acuity patients were offered telehealth options and digital prescriptions for buprenorphine/naloxone. For higher acuity patients, in=person visits were maintained and the risk/benefits were weighed on a continuous basis.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
RELEASE DATE:
Peer Review Study
The article outlines biomedical, behavioral, and social/structural interventions to improve HIV prevention and treatment in sexual and gender minority Latinx communities. The authors emphasize the need for a combination of these types of interventions in addressing health issues like HIV and COVID-19.
Novel Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and are in the process of generating evidence of effectiveness or may not yet be tested.
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Summary Report/Recommendations
This resources summarizes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on substance use and the experiences of people who used drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Highlights include: the pandemic increased the risk of overdose for people who use drugs, and in response people who use drugs reported using more harm reduction strategies. The pandemic also motivated change in wanting to quit drug use for study participants, but also highlighted the social determinants of health as barriers to sustainable recovery.