In the wake of the opioid epidemic, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is launching a massive initiative to help people with opioid addiction and to explore safer treatment options for chronic pain. The University of Washington School of Medicine will receive at least three awards totaling about $19 million.
The “Helping to End Addiction Long-term” (HEAL) Initiative is funding $945 million in 375 funding awards to researchers in 41 states, with UW Psychiatry and the VA Puget Sound Health Care System among the recipients.
Researchers John Fortney, PhD, Anna Ratzliff, MD, PhD, and Andrew Saxon, MD, will engage at least 24 primary-care clinics across the nation to integrate care for opioid-use disorder and co-occurring disorders such as anxiety and depression using the collaborative care model.
“We want to treat the whole person to get the person all the way healed,” said Ratzliff. “We are trying to deliver this treatment in primary care, where barriers to access are lower and there is less stigma.”
