The California Bridge (CA Bridge) program recently the participation of 22 additional hospitals in the program. This extends the program’s reach to 52 hospitals, serving 34 counties. The CA Bridge program expands access to medication assisted treatment by providing accelerated training and technical assistance for health care providers.
In this interview with Bay Area Focus, DHCS’ Marlies Perez explains that opioid use disorder is a disease that changes an individual’s brain chemistry. Medication assisted treatment can help individuals overcome opioid addiction and achieve long-term recovery.
In this ABC 10 Sacramento and Company interview, DHCS’ Marlies Perez highlights the MAT Expansion Project’s efforts to address the opioid epidemic in California. With drug overdoses now the leading cause of death in the US for individuals age 50 and under, these efforts are more important than ever. Substance use disorders are a disease — and treatment is available. To find treatment options near you, visit choosechangeca.org.
In this spotlight by ABC7, Marlies Perez, Division Chief of the Substance Use Disorder Compliance Division at DHCS, explains the role of the MAT Expansion Project in expanding access to treatment for individuals with opioid use disorders and combating the stigma that prevents individuals from seeking treatment. An individual who has overcome a long-standing addiction through the help of MAT stated, “I joined life because methadone helped me.”
HMA, a leading independent national health care and human services research and consulting firm with deep expertise in addiction treatment, has launched its Transitions of Care project in multiple counties across the state. The project is surveying treatment systems stakeholders, conducting onsite process improvement events, and launching an ongoing program of technical assistance to increase the overall number of MAT access points and the overall addiction treatment capacity. This project will operate in up to ten counties under the current SOR funding and has rolled out onsite county efforts in Humboldt, Mendocino, Fresno, Kern, Ventura, and Imperial counties.
A summary of the project as well as a report from the first county-level process improvement event which happened in Imperial County can be found here. New reports will be uploaded as they are completed with county stakeholders throughout the summer and into the fall.
AddictionFreeCA.org
In targeting its work, HMA developed a powerful data dashboard to interactively explore data on the county level to understand the epidemic and treatment system landscape in each county. In addition to rich epidemiological data, the dashboard pulls together data on treatment resources, infrastructure, and State Treatment Response (STR) and State Opioid Response (SOR)-funded projects operating throughout California. The ability to overlay various data points in an interactive way is a powerful tool for understanding the state of the epidemic. HMA is happy to make this dashboard publicly available on its new website which will also:
Marin City Health and Wellness Center is changing lives by providing medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in primary care. Watch this video to learn more about Marin City Health and Wellness Center’s MAT program and its patients.
Treating Addiction in Primary Care: Marin City Health and Wellness from Center for Care Innovations on Vimeo.