The Office of Drug Control Policy and Yale University School of Medicine are working on a project called the Multisite Opioid and HIV Response Endeavor or MOHRE. The goals of MOHRE are to increase medication-assisted therapies to treat opioid use disorder, to prevent new HIV (and HCV) infections, to improve engagement in HIV (and HCV) care in those already infected, to integrate HIV prevention and treatment services into services, to treat opioid use disorders, and to guide policies associated with improving access to medications to treat opioid use disorders.
Dr. Frederick (Rick) L. Altice and Dr. Lynn Madden are providing facilitation and coaching for the project. Dr. Altice is a professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health and is a clinician, clinical epidemiologist, intervention and implementation science researcher at Yale University School of Medicine and School of Public Health. Dr. Altice received his medical degree from Yale. Dr. Madden has served as Chief Executive Officer of the APT Foundation, a non-profit agency founded in 1970 by members of the Yale University Department of Psychiatry to promote health and recovery for those who live with substance use disorders and/or mental illness. Dr. Madden has a Ph.D. from Union Institute & University. Judy Akers is the West Virginia liaison for the project.
West Virginia is the current epicenter of overdose deaths in the U.S. with overdose mortality at 58 per 100,000, the highest in the nation. It has been proven that medication-assisted treatment (MAT) reduces opioid use and retention, reduces injection (90% vs. 11%) and HIV transmission risk (54%), reduces overdose, increases engagement in care for HIV, increases employment, and is cost-effective. Due to lack of education, stigma, and lack of same day and/or bridge services, West Virginia has not fully utilized MAT.
West Virginia has two MOHRE pilot projects. The first is a collaborative with Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC), Cabin Creek Health Systems, West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute, and First Choice Health Systems. CAMC emergency rooms are overwhelmed with patients seeking OUD treatment. In working to find solutions, the collaborative has identified a need for MAT training for all recipients of state grant funding, peer recovery coaches, medical students, and providers. The first training with the HELP4WV specialists of First Choice was September 8, 2020. Additional trainings are being developed.
The second project is with Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center and Marshall University. Southern Highlands will open a new 14-bed SUD treatment facility at Welch Community Hospital in October 2020. MOHRE will provide protocols and training so that anyone admitted for treatment will have MAT services available on the day of admission and a bridge to outpatient services in the patients’ home community at discharge.
For additional information about the MOHRE project or medication-assisted therapies, contact the Office of Drug Control Policy.