Making Space for Social Distance: Adapting Opioid Treatment Programs to COVID-19
Webinar-2020April-Slides.pdf (PDF, 1.07 MB)
A New Challenge
COVID-19 is having an immense impact on Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs)—leading them to transform established procedures to protect the health of patients and staff.
Implementing social distancing to defend against coronavirus is a daunting task for OTPs. To continue meeting with patients and providing medication-assisted treatment (MAT), they have a number of issues to tackle:
Preventing spread of infection at facilities
Maintaining lines of communication with patients
Patients’ stress and isolation
Dispensing medication while reducing traffic
Assessing patients for medication safety
Ensuring adequate stock of medications, PPE, and other supplies
Adapting to federal and state guidelines
Managing staff during a public health crisis
Addressing staff anxiety
In this webinar, presenters from Strong Recovery discuss the steps they are taking to adapt substance use disorder (SUD) programs as quickly as possible in response to the COVID-19 crisis. They give an overview of new federal and state regulations and discuss changes they are implementing—social distancing, telehealth, expanded use of take-home medication, curbside dispensing, and more—in order to keep OTPs safe for patients and staff. The Q&A period is an opportunity to share experiences and delve into the challenges that OTPs in rural communities are facing.
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Presenters
Patrick Seche is the chief administrative officer of the University of Rochester Medical Center Department of Psychiatry. Previously, he was senior director of addiction services at Strong Recovery, where he oversaw three clinics. On the steering committee for UR Medicine Recovery Center of Excellence, Seche focused on substance use disorder, methadone treatment, and community relations.
Itza Morales is co-director of operations and opioid treatment sponsor at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Strong Recovery. She oversees the opioid treatment program, Sobriedad Fuerte (a treatment team for the Latino patient population), the intake and referral team, and the substance use disorder in primary care (SUD-PC) program, among other initiatives. As a project lead with UR Medicine Center of Excellence, Morales is working to reduce stigma and expand access to medications for opioid use disorder in underserved rural communities. With experience that includes research, direct patient care, and administrative roles, she is passionate about expanding services for individuals with SUD and for Latino and African American patient populations in particular.
