November 4, 2021

Telehealth for Opioid Use Disorder Toolkit is Now Available

Clinical Guidance to Support High-Quality Care for Patients with Opioid Use Disorders

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) just released valuable, evidenced-based guidance for those delivering, managing, and considering telehealth care for individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD). The Telehealth for Opioid Use Disorder Toolkit: Guidance to Support High-Quality Care is a free 21 page resource geared toward clinicians, administrators and policymakers.

 

The goal of this toolkit/guidance is to help clinicians and policy-makers as they navigate the current changing environment on telehealth for OUD treatment. It was designed to blend information on evidence/research, current status of policies (federal, state, reimbursement, etc), and most importantly, pragmatic tools for clinicians to deliver high quality care.

Co-authored by two University of Michigan Health experts: Lewei (Allison) Lin MD, MS, addiction psychiatrist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Christopher J. Frank MD, PhD, primary care physician and Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, this toolkit covers buprenorphine and adjunctive psychotherapy treatment options for OUD, mainly via videoconferencing. Specific tools include checklists, flowcharts, and sample notes that can be used in combination with existing guidance on OUD treatment.