Advancing Family-Centered Care for Pregnant and Parenting Women

Pat Stilen, MSW
Co-Director
Sarah Knopf-Amelung, MA-R
Kate Mallula, MPH, LMSW

Mid-America ATTC

March 5, 2019

As former director of a women’s treatment program in Nebraska, Mid-America ATTC Co-Director Pat Stilen saw firsthand the importance of family in mothers’ recovery journeys. She also recognized that family-centered care was the exception rather than the standard of substance use disorder (SUD) care. It was with this perspective that she and her team at Mid-America ATTC led the ATTC Center of Excellence on Behavioral Health for Pregnant and Postpartum Women and Their Families (ATTC CoE-PPW) from October 2015 – September 2017. We collaborated with three other regional centers – Great Lakes, New England, and Southeast ATTCs – to advance family-centered care nationally.

Medication-Assisted Treatment: Promoting Tools for Successful Recovery

February 25, 2019

Pat Stilen, MSW
Co-Director, Mid-America ATTC

Kansas City, home to the Mid-America ATTC at the
University of Missouri Kansas City

A decade ago, few people knew about the array of medications available to support persons in recovery from substance use disorders (SUDs). In the judicial and corrections arenas, if persons coming into jails and prisons were on medication to help mitigate drug cravings, these medications were immediately stopped. Having worked in a field where abstinence was the gold standard for clients, counseling staff from entry-level to supervisors were often suspicious about such medications, and sometimes downright resistant.

...counseling staff from entry level to supervisors were often suspicious about such medications, and sometimes downright resistant. 

Many physicians didn’t get pre-service training in substance use disorders, didn’t see the need to know, and, frankly, didn’t care to work with “those” people. Policymakers were hesitant to add yet another layer of education, treatment and expenses to an already complex and siloed system. In order for the delivery system for SUD medications to be effective, not just the counseling profession, but all four legs of this stool, would need to work together: medical, behavioral health, judicial, and policymakers. There was an urgency to coordinate these groups as the opioid epidemic grew.

Allying with Peru to Integrate LGBT-Affirming Practices

Kim-Monique Johnson
Diana Padilla
Edgar Vargas
Northeast and Caribbean ATTC

January 24, 2019

“This is the first time I have ever discussed LGBTQ health care with anyof my colleagues – it’s long overdue that we treat the LGTBQ community with dignity and respect. This is about humanity.”– Psychiatrist, SOGI Training Participant, Lima, Perú

Diana Padilla, Kim-Monique Johnson,
and Edgar Vargas, Lima, 2017

In May 2017, a meeting was held by the Colombo Plan in Santiago, Chile, bringing together a group of international experts to create a new curriculum on providing substance use disorder (SUD) treatment to LGBT individuals. Starting with the curriculum on Culturally Responsive Care for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Individuals developed by the SAMHSA-funded YMSM + LGBT Center of Excellence, the experts worked to make the curriculum applicable to an international audience. 

This resulted in a pilot training in the fall of 2017, and then evolved into a training-of-trainers (ToT) in 2018, for providers in Lima, Peru. These events were in partnership with The Colombo Plan’s Drug Advisory Program, and funded by the US Department of State, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. On behalf of the Northeast & Caribbean ATTC, three trainers from NDRI-USA, Kim-Monique Johnson, Diana Padilla, and Edgar Vargas, delivered the pilot training and ToT, The Intersection between Substance Use and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI).

Scott County, IN: Where It's Cool to Be In Recovery

February 4, 2019
Maureen Fitzgerald
Great Lakes ATTC

In spring 2015, the HIV outbreak caused by injection drug use in rural Scott County, Indiana, made headlines around the world. More than 200 cases were confirmed in the town of Austin, affecting one-fifth of its population of 4,200. This rural county faced multiple challenges in addressing the outbreak: poverty, high unemployment, and limited access to medical care, compounded by a devastating shortage of substance use disorder treatment and recovery services.

The Centers for Disease Control sent researchers to investigate. The state declared a public health emergency, with the governor authorizing a temporary Syringe Services Program. At the same time, local efforts to tackle the crisis were gaining momentum. Community leaders began to meet to talk about the the underlying issues that had triggered the skyrocketing rates of HIV infection in the area.

Central East ATTC: Implementing Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) in Title X Family Planning Settings

January 15, 2019

Shelly Miller
Consultant, Central East ATTC
Subject Matter Expert, Family Planning

Over the past year, the Central East ATTC collaborated with the Region III, Title X Family Planning Program to integrate the SBIRT model for early intervention and treatment services for substance use disorder within reproductive health care centers. The goal is to build capacity for the Title X provider network to implement substance use screening tools, provide targeted counseling, and when appropriate, refer patients to treatment.