This brief from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) presents key takeaway messages from a mixed-methods study examining how substance use affects child welfare systems across the country. It highlights that, generally, counties with higher overdose death and drug hospitalization rates have higher caseload rates.

This document also explains that child welfare agencies and their community partners are struggling to meet families’ needs partially secondary to substance use and that family-friendly treatment options are limited. Finally, the brief emphasizes that caseworkers, courts, and other providers often misunderstand how treatment works and lack guidelines on how to incorporate it into child welfare practice. 

This is a report from the National Council on Mental Wellbeing that aims to help harm reduction organizations, treatment providers, and other organizations that serve people who use drugs overcome challenges associated with implementing telehealth and technology-assisted services and leverage these advances to help improve the health and wellness of the individuals they serve. Successful initiatives are highlighted throughout the report. 

This 2013 SAMHSA report describes the core elements of screening, brief intervention, brief treatment, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) programs and provides general administrative and managerial information relevant to implementing SBIRT services, including: SBIRT effectiveness; implementation models; challenges and barriers to implementation; issues of cost and sustainability; and real-life program anecdotes and case studies.

This is a report from the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) that explores innovative approaches Louisiana, New York, and West Virginia have taken to address co-occurring HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) infections and substance use disorder (SUD) – providing both rural and urban perspectives – and highlights their resourceful use of funding streams, leveraging of data, and advancing community readiness.

This is an academic paper that documents the currently available opioid-related smartphone apps and reviews past and existing technology solutions that address opioid use disorder (OUD), including educational apps for prescribers, wearable sensors, and GPS locator apps. 

This paper analyzes the current state of telehealth services at the federal and state levels, as well as the benefits and limitations of telehealth technology use. It also offers public policy recommendations to improve telehealth services in the United States. 

This is an academic paper that describes the importance of using telemedicine to treat substance use disorders (SUD) during the COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses policy changes that have reduced barriers and provides recommendations on how to sustain implementation of telehealth into SUD treatment after the pandemic. 

This is a report from SAMHSA that reviews the literature on the effectiveness of telehealth modalities for the treatment of severe mental illness (SMI) and substance use disorder (SUD), distills the research into recommendations for practice, and provides examples of how practitioners use these practices in their programs.

This is an academic paper that presents promising findings from the HEROES program in Texas that reported an overall increase in patient engagement over time after rapidly enacted virtual care with telehealth for peer coaching, counseling, groups, and provider visits in response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

This is a CADTH Rapid Response Report that gives a critical appraisal on providing medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) via telemedicine. The report summarizes the evidence for telehealth-delivered MOUD and provides evidence-based guidelines, a cost-effective analysis, and guidance on initiation of MOUD at home. 

This is a brief report from the US Dept. of Health and Human Services that provides clinical scenario examples that are compliant with current DEA policies around using telehealth to deliver medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). 

This is an academic paper that provides commentary on leveraging telehealth to increase the capacity of medications for opioid use disorder (OUD). Current evidence, existing state laws, barriers, and policy recommendations are discussed.