Stories of recovery: Patients talk about pairing medication assisted treatment with provider support

Health engagement hubs like Washington state’s Buprenorphine Pathways connect people with prescriptions for methadone and buprenorphine to help treat addiction. In addition to medication and a syringe-exchange program, the hub also connects patients to social services, taking a more holistic approach to addiction treatment.

In order to tackle opioid addiction, the state of Virginia found a way to make drug treatment accessible to people with medicaid by boosting “reimbursement rates to addiction treatment providers.” Historically, drug treatment hasn’t been covered by health insurance. Virginia is changing that. Already, “the percent of Medicaid members with an opioid use disorder who received treatment went up by 29 percent from April to December 2017 compared to the same period the previous year.”

Los Angeles County’s Homeless Outreach & Mobile Engagement (HOME) program uses street psychiatry to get psychiatric medication to people experiencing homelessness in an effort to get them a step closer to housing. The HOME team has 223 full-time staff members and served 1,919 people last year, 22% of whom ended the year housed.

The Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition (VHRC) uses harm reduction strategies to help those suffering from addiction by providing free supplies like overdose reversal spray, safe smoking kits and clean syringes, as well as connection to education and treatment options when people are ready. Those who access services through a harm reduction program are five times more likely to enter treatment programs. Last year alone, the VHRC distributed more than 20,000 doses of Narcan which they know reversed at least 2,000 overdoses.

Agencies like the SHARE Center are beginning to hire peer support specialists, who are individuals who have lived experience of recovery from mental health conditions and substance use disorders. Peer support specialists provide non-clinical, strengths-based support and build trusting relationships with those in need of care. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for peer support specialists has grown exponentially and reports show that working with a peer support specialist can improve health outcomes and quality of life among other benefits.

Several groups in the Appalachian region are turning toward harm-reduction strategies to help those struggling with drug abuse. Research shows that those who participate in syringe exchange programs are five times more likely to enter treatment than those who didn’t participate. Groups like Holler Harm Reduction and Choice Health Network host scheduled drop-ins where they deliver supplies, provide naloxone training and education, and administer disease testing wound care to those in need.

Great Circle Recovery is the first tribally run opioid treatment clinic in the state and is opening up its second location. Approximately 250 people visit the clinic on a daily basis to access medications that help those suffering from addiction. The centers also provide access to counselors, case management and other medical services to support patients on their recovery journey.

Primary care practioners are prescribing buprenorphine to patients struggling with opioid substance use disorder, providing a support for medication-assisted recovery. Practices use a team-based approach and grant funding to provide this support and overcome the challenges of limited staff capacity and insufficient reimbursement.

After the fall of an oppressive and isolating regime, Portugal found itself utterly unprepared to deal with the rapid distribution of narcotics in the 1980s, creating a crisis that left 1 in every 10 people struggling with addiction. The country took a radical approach to rectifying opioid use through a huge cultural shift in the way it viewed and treated addicts - prioritizing support services and pioneering programs like needle-exchange and substitution therapy, and eventually decriminalizing hard drugs so that users could more easily get help, and drug rates have since plummeted.

Chesterfield County, Virginia implemented a multi-faceted response to the opioid crisis, including a jail-based recovery program, Helping Addicts Recover Progressively (HARP), that brings people in recovery to the local jail to talk about addiction and treatment resources. Combined with other efforts, overdose deaths have dropped by half in a single year, and around 4,000 people have participated in HARP.