From Maury Elsasser...

I hope this finds you well. As you know of my obsession with Outcome Measures and Value-based care as the future of sustainable affordable healthcare but most immediately a pathway to saving more lives in the opioid epidemic.  I’ve been extremely  lucky to have been a member of ICHOM’s Workgroup this past year developing a Standard Set of Outcome Measures for Addiction.  Well, we need your feedback for our work thus far.  I’ve copied the email below from our Research Fellow Dr. Nicola Black (she is brilliant) describing how to complete a short survey.  Please pass this on to all contacts . I really appreciate it and all the work do.  Thank you so much….Please continue to read and click the links.

What is this work about? Understanding and measuring the outcomes that matter most to patients is essential for delivering value-based healthcare. To facilitate this, we have developed a proposal for a standard set of outcomes to assess following treatment for substance use and addictive behaviour disorders. Implementation of this standard set will better allow informed decision making, quality improvement, and reduced costs. We are now seeking feedback on this standard set from professionals in the field to improve this recommendation, which we hope will be a minimum global standard in clinical practice. What are we asking? We are seeking professionals to provide feedback on the proposed standard set of outcome measures via our 15-30 minute survey, by February 16, 2020. We are also seeking individuals to share this survey within their networks, either via forwarding this email, including information about the survey in any relevant newsletters, and/or retweeting it. We hope that this will be shared and completed as widely as possible, so every little bit helps. Who can complete the survey? We are seeking anyone with professional experience with substance use and/or addictive behaviour disorders (disorders related to alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, gambling, gaming, specifically). This includes researchers or educators, health or social care practitioners (e.g., clinicians, allied health professionals, social workers), government, policy or commissioning professionals, advocacy or charity professionals, commercial or industry representatives, and any other individuals with relevant professional experience. We are seeking professionals from any country. The survey is only available in English. Why are we seeking feedback? We hope that this standard set will become a minimum global standard. This can only be achieved if the set is truly fit-for-purpose in all settings. Through our working group, we have drawn on a diverse range of experiences of 26 experts in order to develop the current proposal. Now we want to expand this and draw on as many diverse perspectives as possible to ensure that we are validly and reliably capturing the outcomes that matter to people who seek treatment across all of the different populations and settings around the world. Who is conducting this work? This work is led by the International Consortium of Health Outcome Measurement (ICHOM). The project team consists of the project managers, Sophie Chung and Luz Fialho (ICHOM), the chair, Prof Michael Farrell (National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre), and the research fellow, Dr Nicola Black (National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre). All major decisions in the project have been made via consensus from an international, multidisciplinary group of 26 experts from 11 countries: Dr Apinun Aramrattana (Chiang Mai University), Prof Sawitri Assanangkornchai (Prince of Songkla University), Prof Alex Blaszczynski (University of Sydney), Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones (Imperial College London), Adrian Brown (Central and North West London Trust), Dr Qiana Brown (Rutgers University), Dr Linda Cottler (University of Florida), Maury Elsasser*, Dr Marica Ferri (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction), Dr Maria Florence (University of the Western Cape), Dr Ralitza Gueorguieva (Yale School of Public Health), Ryan Hampton*, Dr Suzie Hudson (Network of Alcohol and other Drugs Agencies), A/Prof Peter Kelly (University of Wollongong), Prof Nicholas Lintzeris (University of Sydney), Lyn Murphy*, Dr Abhijit Nadkarni (Sangath), Prof Joanne Neale (King’s College London), Prof Daniel Rosen (University of Pittsburgh), Dr Hans-Jürgen Rumpf (Universität zu Lübeck), Dr Brian Rush (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health), Gabriel Segal* (Alcoholics Anonymous), Dr Gillian Shorter (Ulster University), Prof Marta Torrens (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Prof Wim van den Brink (University of Amsterdam), Chris Wait* (Build on Belief). *Working group members with lived experience.

New Hampshire needs your voice.

On Tuesday, February 4th, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a public hearing on SB 621, which would allow ready to drink spirit based cocktails (products such as "Tequila Paloma" and "Rum and Cola") available in convenience and grocery stores, making these higher alcohol percentage drinks widely accessible and available. The size of these cocktails can range from a single serving size to 749 milliliters - one milliliter less than a bottle of wine! 

Make your voice heard on why SB 621 is wrong for New Hampshire and join us at the hearing.

Committee Hearing on SB 621

Tuesday, February 4th at 2:30 p.m.

State House Room 100

107 N. Main St. Concord, NH 03301

 

This policy change would be a monumental shift in New Hampshire's current regulatory system which requires liquor products like these to be sold in state run liquor stores. Polices such as this one, which regulate the percentage and location of where liquor is sold, are in place to protect public health and safety. New Hampshire is currently struggling with a substance misuse epidemic and alcohol remains the most prevalent substance misused in the United States and New Hampshire. Now is not the time to weaken New Hampshire's alcohol regulations. 

 

Can't make it to the hearing? We need strong advocates to call committee members today and urge them to oppose SB 621. 

 

Thank you for your continued advocacy for our Granite State communities!

Available Now! Download Instantly!   A newly updated and abridged version of the Legal Action Center’s Book, Confidentiality & Communication, is now available as an eBook. It covers all the essentials for understanding confidentiality, including answers to questions like:    When do 42 CFR Part 2 and HIPAA apply? How did the 2017 amendments change the requirements for consent forms, patient privacy notices and the notice of prohibition on re-disclosure? How to make disclosures for medical emergencies, audits, or research? How can a program report a crime on program premises? What should a program do if it receives a subpoena, search warrant, or arrest warrant? What privacy rights do patients have? How are the laws enforced and what are the security requirements? What are best practices for common confidentiality issues?  BUY NOW Confidentiality & Communication is an indispensable guide to substance use disorder (SUD) privacy for new members of the SUD treatment field and stakeholders who work with individuals receiving SUD treatment, as well as seasoned confidentiality experts with questions about the 2017 and 2018 amendments to 42 CFR Part 2. Available for instant download for only $109. Click here to buy!   The 2020 edition also explains the newest proposal by SAMHSA to amend the confidentiality regulations again, and flags areas where the regulations are subject to change in the future. If the regulations change in 2020, LAC will publish a new edition with fully updated information and offer a discount to customers who purchased the current edition. To see a full list of the topics covered in the abridged and updated 2020 edition of Confidentiality & Communication, visit the online Table of Contents.  The 2020 edition of Confidentiality & Communication is available as an e-book only.

Exhibitor and Sponsor Registration for the NAADAC 2020 Annual Conference & Hill Day Is Now Open! NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals, invites you to join the family of exhibitors, sponsors, and advertisers at its 2020 Annual Conference & Hill Day: Learn, Connect, Advocate, Succeed, in Washington, DC at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center from September 25-30, 2020. Over 1,000 addiction professionals gathered in Orlando, FL for the NAADAC 2019 Annual Conference last September to hear the latest information on addiction prevention, treatment, recovery support, and education. The 2020 Annual Conference & Hill Day in Washington, DC will be even bigger and better! Exhibiting is an excellent opportunity to present information about your organization and to develop new contacts. Don't miss this chance to attend one of the largest gatherings of addiction-focused professionals of the year! Download 2020 Prospectus Exhibitor Information The 2020 Annual Conference & Hill Day Exhibit Hall at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center will be open on September 25-27, 2020. Exhibit booth rentals are 10' x 8’ in size. Special requests for other sizes will be accommodated if possible. Booths will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. In-line booth: $1,500 | Corner booth: $2,000 All exhibitors receive two full conference registration badges and inclusion in our onsite program. Bundle and save through our Exhibitor Maximum Exposure Package Opportunity! Download 2020 Exhibit Application & Contract Sponsorship Opportunities NAADAC offers a range of custom sponsorship and advertising opportunities to maximize exposure and provide companies with exclusive chances to network with other addiction-focused health care professionals and, more importantly, with decision-makers in the addiction community. Get your company name, logo, and services in front of over 1,000 addiction-focused health care professionals and more than 100 exhibitors! Available sponsorship opportunities include: conference lanyards, hotel key cards, exclusive networking receptions, conference program ads, conference mobile app ads, promotional portfolio inserts, hotel room drops, and much more!

New Hampshire PBS

Roads to Recovery: Overdose and Brain Injury

(Durham, August 29, 2019) - For years, Laurie Branchaud lived in fear of a phone call. “I was scared every day,” she says. Her son Ryan was struggling with opioid addiction and she dreaded a call from authorities telling her he had overdosed and died. “I always used to say he would turn around or he would die. There were two options. I never thought of the middle option.”

While Ryan Branchaud did eventually overdose, he survived due to medical intervention but sustained a severe brain injury. His story and others are featured in the upcoming New Hampshire PBS documentary Roads to Recovery: Overdose and Brain Injury that premiered on Thursday, September 5^th . The latest in a series of programs on substance misuse and recovery in New Hampshire, this installment investigates how brain injury can result from an overdose and how it can complicate addiction treatment.

A recent increase in brain injuries among overdose survivors is partially a result of improved medical treatment of overdoses. While the injuries are not always severe, they can complicate the treatment and recovery process.

“Brain injury symptoms can be misinterpreted as ‘they’re not really trying,’” says Lindy Keller, a Treatment and Recovery Specialist with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. “If this person has had multiple overdoses they may be trying as hard as they can, but they’re limited in their capacity.”

John Corrigan, a psychologist at Ohio State University, concurs, “One of my missions is to help substance use professionals to understand the importance of knowing what the brain injury history is of the person across from them.”   Corrigan notes that an individual with a brain injury often requires greater support, over a longer period of time, from providers, friends and family. “When you think treatment is over, it’s not.” To view this series, online please visit nhpbs.org/recovery. 

Funding for Roads to Recovery: Overdose and Brain Injury is provided by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health and the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire.

About New Hampshire PBS:  New Hampshire PBS inspires one million Granite Staters each month with engaging and trusted local and national programs and services on-air, online, via mobile, in classrooms and in communities. Beyond its award-winning television programs, New Hampshire PBS is a leader in education and community engagement. www.nhpbs.org

Visit the NHBS PRESSROOM at www.nhpbs.org/pressroom  •  Follow NHPBS on Facebook and Twitter

New Hampshire PBS | 268 Mast Road |  Durham, NH 03824 |  603.868.1100  •  nhpbs.org

NHPBS | NHPBS EXPLORE | NH WORLD | NH CREATE | NHPBS KIDS
Digital channels 11 Durham, 34 Pittsburg, 48 Littleton, 49 Keene, 50 Hanover

https://nam.edu/initiatives/clinician-resilience-and-well-being/

Clinician well-being is essential for safe, high-quality patient care.

Brought to you by your NHADACA Ethics Committee.

However, clinicians of all kinds, across all specialties and care settings, are experiencing alarming rates of burnout. Among the most telling of statistics, more than 50 percent of U.S. physicians report significant symptoms. Burnout is a syndrome characterized by a high degree of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization (i.e., cynicism), and a low sense of personal accomplishment at work.

Clinician burnout can have serious, wide-ranging consequences, from reduced job performance and high turnover rates to—in the most extreme cases—medical error and clinician suicide. On the other hand, clinician well-being supports improved patient-clinician relationships, a high-functioning care team, and an engaged and effective workforce. In other words, when we invest in clinician well-being, everyone wins.

Supporting clinician well-being requires sustained attention and action at organizational, state, and national levels, as well as investment in research and information-sharing to advance evidence-based solutions. 

 

In 2017, the National Academy of Medicine launched the Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience, a network of more than 60 organizations committed to reversing trends in clinician burnout. The Collaborative has three goals:

1. Raise the visibility of clinician anxiety, burnout, depression, stress, and suicide
2. Improve baseline understanding of challenges to clinician well-being
3. Advance evidence-based, multidisciplinary solutions to improve patient care by caring for the caregiver. 

The Action Collaborative is composed of five working groups that will meet over the course of four years to identify evidence-based strategies to improve clinician well-being at both the individual and systems levels. Products and activities of these five working groups include an online knowledge hub, a series of NAM Perspectives discussion papers, and an all-encompassing conceptual model that reflects the domains affecting clinician well-being. 

Gender-Based Differences in Burnout: Issues Faced by Women Physicians 

Women now account for an increasingly large percentage of medical school students and practicing physicians, yet there is still a scarcity of research on how gender-related differences can affect clinician burnout and well-being. Recognizing gender-related differences is critical in designing effective strategies to improve clinician well-being and to identify, treat, and prevent burnout. This recently-released discussion paper examines how gender-related differences can manifest, and some strategies for ensuring well-being for all health professionals. 

Expressions of Clinician Well-Being 

The National Academy of Medicine recently called on artists of all skills and abilities to explore what clinician burnout, clinician well-being, and clinician resilience looks, feels and sounds like to people across the country. 100 pieces of artwork were selected by a panel of reviewers to be displayed in a digital gallery. Explore the digital art gallery >>

Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub is Live!

The Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience is proud to announce the launch of the Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub, a comprehensive resource repository for those seeking to promote clinician well-being at their organizations and in their personal lives. Visit the knowledge hub>>

Help us share the knowledge hub by clicking here.

Meeting recording and slides now available!  Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic April 30, 2019   Watch the webinar recording This public meeting of the Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic included an open, public session on Tuesday, April 30 from 9am – 1pm. The session included a keynote presentation and updates from the four working groups of the Action Collaborative.  Watch the recording and view the presentations here >> Every day, an estimated 130 Americans die from an opioid overdose – a grim statistic that has devastated families and communities across the nation. Due to its complex and urgent nature, reversing the opioid crisis will require a multi-sectoral and multi-pronged response; no organization, government agency, or sector can solve this crisis on its own. Within the past year alone, numerous initiatives, reports, guidelines, and recommendations have been developed to address the epidemic across the public and private sectors. With so much activity underway, strong mechanisms to support better coordination, information-sharing, and evidence-based practice are needed. To improve coordination and accelerate the pace of change, the National Academy of Medicine has partnered with the Aspen Institute and more than 55 other organizations to form an Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic. This one-of-a-kind public-private partnership comprises government, communities, health systems, provider groups, payers, industry, nonprofits, academia, and more – all committed to sharing knowledge, aligning ongoing initiatives, and advancing collective, multisector solutions.  Learn more>>

Opportunity to Participate in Study Regarding Types of Trauma Treatment Provided by SUD Clinicians Understanding the depth and spread of the co-occurrence of trauma and substance use disorders within the population, the urgency of the need for treatment by qualified and prepared clinicians cannot be overemphasized. This 3-4 minute survey developed by Tom Alexander, PhD, Mary Hoke, PhD, and Karlene Barrett, PhD (Department of Graduate Psychology – Purdue University Global) intends to gain a better understanding of the type of trauma treatment provided for individuals with substance use disorders and the clinicians who treat such individuals. Participation is totally voluntary and anonymous; no information will be collected that could possibly identify individual participants; no one at NAADAC will ever know if a member chose to participate or not; and there are no consequences for choosing to participate or not in the study.

April 16, 2019

Brought to you by your NHADACA Ethics Committee.

Resilience, the ability to bounce back from difficult situations or circumstances, is often discussed in regard to clients and patients. Rarely is it discussed in regard to those providing care and services to these individuals, it is merely assumed. The mental and emotional well-being of providers in the substance use disorder profession, or indeed, in any type of healthcare, is often overlooked, dismissed, or shrugged off. There seems to be an underlying assumption that providers come into the profession with inborn resilience and that we can move on from difficult experiences without lasting harm.  Burn-out and compassion-fatigue are often seen as weaknesses, rather than a natural consequence of a service that can take a huge emotional toll. We are often more compassionate toward clients and patients than we are toward our employees, supervisees and ourselves. Recently, people have been becoming more aware that pretending the problem of burn-out doesn’t exist, or dismissing those with compassion fatigue as weak, is not making those problems go away, and may in fact be exacerbating them. Like many other problems, we must first be able to openly talk about these issues, without fear of being shamed by supervisors and colleagues, in order to combat them.

In an effort to help combat the stigma around burn-out and compassion fatigue, the NHADACA Board of Directors, as guided and proposed by the Ethics Committee, submitted a Commitment Statement outlining our commitment to improving provider well-being to the National Academy of Medicine, Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience (NAM). NAM has requested organizations in the healthcare field submit statements in an effort to foster a national commitment to fight burn-out and fatigue. It is NHADACA’s hope that participating in this effort will help further a conversation about the need to foster provider well-being on both a national and local level.

Within the coming months, NHADACA will further this effort throughout NH by reaching out to local organizations and invite them to also post organizational commitment statements that support provider well-being.    For more information contact the NHADACA office at 603.225.7060.