This is an academic paper which presents a case study of efforts to implement the expansion of access to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in the rural state of Montana. The study identified limits to the hub and spoke model used and offers suggestions for policies that could improve access to MOUD in rural communities such as those in Montana. 

This is a qualitative evaluation of a training program in Washington that waivered physicians to prescribe buprenorphine. Several physicians were interviewed following the program to identify the different barriers to prescribing.

This report describes the importance of integrating behavioral health services, including addiction treatment, into primary health care facilities in order to address substance use disorders in rural areas. Barriers to integration are described, federal resources listed, and recommendations on how communities can facilitate integration are listed. 

This is a report from the Rural Policy Research Institute that provides an overview of behavioral health in rural America with the goal of helping rural leaders and providers understand the issues related to rural mental health and substance use and give them resources and tools to develop targeted strategies to address the unique needs of their communities.

This interactive mapping tool allows users to visualize the geographic distribution of the behavioral health workforce by provider type (e.g., buprenorphine prescriber, social worker) and by Medicaid acceptance status.

This is a toolkit from Wells Insurance to help employers understand and deal with the opioid crisis, create a healthier and more productive workforce, and reduce costs. An appendix includes educational materials, communications with employees, sample policies, and form templates. 

In response to rising opioid deaths, this report describes post-overdose outreach programs that connect overdose survivors with a variety of services and strategies to reduce their risk for future overdose. It provides evidence-based guidance to agencies and communities seeking to implement such programs and suggests best practices based on community experience and a review of the relevant literature.

This is a report from the Canadian Centre for Substance Use and Addiction (author Taha) that outlines the standard of service that should be implemented to provide person-centered care to all people experiencing harms from opioids across the continuum of care, including a summary of actions taking place across Canada at multiple levels of government.

This academic paper outlines a study which utilized the Delphi approach to identify the best practices for overdose prevention and naloxone delivery (OEND). The investigators engaged with 27 experts on the topic of OEND who were asked to review and rank a given list of best practices. The results indicated that the practices given highest priority were increasing community based OEND programs with a focus on program quality. 

This is an academic article that gives an overview of opioid use disorder treatment models in the emergency department (ED). The ASSERT Model employs peer workers to directly link patients to services, the Bridge Model uses providers to initiate buprenorphine in the ED and provide linkage to continuity of treatment, and the ED-Bridge Model uses providers to initiate buprenorphine in the ED and follow up the same patients in an addiction treatment clinic. 

This is a website from the National Institute for Health Care Management that provides data on the fourth wave of the opioid crisis, polysubstance use involving opioids and stimulants, such as cocaine and methamphetamine. 

This is a toolkit that addresses stigma among moms and babies so that they can get the support that they need. Women with substance use disorders, along with other stigmatizing conditions (e.g. HIV, mental health diagnoses) are the targeted population. The toolkit describes what stigma is and provides many testimonies on how it manifests in society.