Policy Design, Evaluation and Consultation Available from
TRI’s Center on Policy Research and Analysis

Locally tailored assistance helps officials with medicated assisted treatment, performance based contracting, criminal justice solutions, purchasing/managing coordinated care, and integrating substance use into primary medical care.

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TRI’s Center for Policy Research and Analysis has released a series of papers outlining the need for policy makers to re-think the way they purchase, regulate or administer substance abuse treatment services – and ways the Center and its affiliated experts can help guide them.

“Policymaking, patient choice and values, and scientific findings must drive quality improvement in addiction treatment and recovery,” said Mady Chalk, Ph.D., Director of the TRI Center on Policy Research and Analysis. “The current financial crisis is very real and very threatening. But fueled by an explosion of research findings and learning from innovative state and local experiments, there is enormous opportunity for policy makers to recast themselves as the agents for quality improvement in substance abuse. Treatment providers can and will adapt, but only in a regulatory and purchasing environment that allows them to,” she said.

The papers provide information for state and local AOD officials. Several themes predominate: the degree to which public entities are assuming a greater share of responsibility for funding substance abuse treatment systems, the need for all systems to incorporate chronic, not acute, treatment models, and the utility of drawing upon primary as well as specialty care resources to improve early identification and appropriate response. Drawing upon its own resources supplemented by a variety of experts available to the Center, the papers include:

Implementation of NQF Treatment Standards for Substance Use Disorders: A series of informational papers arising out of a TRI-UCLA dissemination project, including:

Introduction to the Center for Policy Research and Analysis: a Center overview that makes the case for policy changes that foster quality improvement, particularly chronic care models of treatment.

Assessing MAT Readiness in States: a checklist for policy officials seeking to introduce medications into state substance use treatment systems.

Performance Based Contracting: a brief overview of novel experiments underway in several states, and ways the Center can help other states and municipalities design strategies for implanting contract-based incentives to foster evidence-based practice and improvement.

Treatment of Offenders with Substance Abuse Disorders: substance involved offenders have unique needs that, if not met, will unproductively drain public dollars. Many are diverted from prison/jail into alternative venues including drug and other problem-solving courts. Non-diverted, incarcerated offenders frequently do not receive any substance abuse treatment, much less treatment designed with a chronic care model. This paper discusses ways to change policy to potentially reduce recidivism and relapse, potentially saving scarce funding through improved service delivery.

Purchasing and Managing Coordinated Care: Increasingly, research shows that that a broader continuum of services should be available to clients and that the level and intensity of services should adapt based on continuous, during-treatment monitoring of client status. TRI’s Policy Center can help officials draw upon the various federal and state sources of funding to create appropriate continuums – and coordinate patient movement between the levels.

Integrating Substance Use into Medical Care: with evidence increasing that substance use can compromise medical care for common disorders, engaging primary care providers is now critical to addiction policy. This document describes several approaches including the PRISM project, SBIRT, and the “medical homes” model.

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The Treatment Research Institute is an independent, non-profit research and development organization specializing in science-driven reform of policy and practice in substance use and abuse. TRI’s Center for Policy Research and Analysis was founded in November 2006, dedicated to design and evaluation of research- and practice-derived policies fostering quality improvement in substance abuse treatment. To learn more about the Center, visit its website or contact Mady Chalk, Ph.D., Center Director, at mchalk@tresearch.org.