Opioid use disorder is a complex but treatable disease. Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) is an approach that uses FDA-approved medications like buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone to treat people diagnosed with opioid use disorder. Despite MOUD’s proven effectiveness, many providers are hesitant to use this approach due to a variety of reasons including a lack of confidence, knowledge and guidance.

To help fill this gap, the Psychiatry Consultation Line (PCL) received funding from the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) to develop a MOUD-specific training required for all psychiatrists who staff the line. While the PCL team has always included addiction psychiatrists and consulted on substance use disorder, this additional attention to MOUD will help meet the growing need to support providers on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic in Washington.

In addition to creating training materials for department psychiatrists, the PCL team partnered with an ADAI workgroup led by Chris Buresh, MD, to develop a series of clinical treatment algorithms that will be publicly available via ScalaNW, an HCA program that offers providers on-demand access to evidence-based MOUD clinical care materials and resources. ScalaNW also provides resources to help providers connect their patients to ongoing care in their local community. While the PCL MOUD expansion launched on March 1, the ScalaNW program will start in early April.

Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship Director Jonathan Buchholz, MD, led the creation of the new materials that will help the entire PCL team better address psychiatric consultations related to substance use disorder. The new materials will also help build the confidence of providers around the state to employ best practices in MOUD treatment. Dr. Buchholz will also lead ongoing education substance use education for our PCL providers.