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Substance Use Disorder

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The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will host a Region 3 virtual town hall, “Expanding the Behavioral Health Workforce: Common Elements Treatment Approach,” from 9:45 am – 12:00 pm on Tuesday, December 5, 2024. The purpose of the town hall is to share information and outcomes about an innovative solution to address workforce challenges with rural, veteran, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC), and international examples.

Information is now available about the event’s speakers, including the agenda. Interested participants can register online. For inquiries, contact Jean Bennett or Jeanne Tuono of SAMHSA.

The Department of Human Services (DHS) published a bulletin on patient smoking on June 15, 1993, to clarify smoke-free living areas. The Department now requires all state hospitals to be smoke-free facilities, which was announced during the Department’s press release on December 11, 2018. The facilities are to offer smoking cessation programs and support as needed, including nicotine patches, gum, or other replacement items permissible for both patients (if approved/supported by the treatment team, primarily for new admissions) and staff.

View the full announcement on rescission of Bulletin SMH-93-02, Patient Smoking, here. Comments and questions regarding this bulletin should be directed via email.

If you have additional questions or would like RCPA to submit comments, please contact RCPA Mental Health Services Policy Director Jim Sharp.

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The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) will launch a new Training Management System (TMS) in January 2024. To facilitate the transition, the current TMS and DDAP courses in TrainPA will be frozen at 3:00 pm Thursday, December 7, until the system’s launch on January 4, 2024. DDAP emphasizes the importance of verifying matching email addresses in both systems to mitigate potential record loss during the migration process. Users are strongly encouraged to conclude any ongoing TrainPA trainings and finalize pending course evaluations within the current TMS before the freeze period. For further assistance, users may contact the DDAP Training Section via email.

The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) announced today that 312 recovery houses are now licensed throughout the commonwealth.

Since the licensure program began, DDAP has provided hands-on technical assistance to recovery house owners and continues to work individually with applicants to ensure accurate submissions when applying. DDAP developed and now offers a new provider workshop that has helped to increase accuracy of applications, which further streamlines and expedites the licensure process.

The purpose of DDAP’s recovery house licensure program is to help empower sustained recovery for individuals with substance use disorder by ensuring a network of safe drug and alcohol recovery houses across Pennsylvania.

A listing of licensed recovery houses as well as information regarding the licensing application process can be found on the DDAP website.

Read the complete press release.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health (PA DOH) is currently accepting applications for the PA-SUN Request for Applications (RFA). Hospitals and Health Systems, on behalf of their ED(s), are invited to apply to the Department in accordance with RFA # 67-166.

The Department is interested in funding applications addressing building and implementing health system-wide clinical capacity to screen, diagnose, and support longitudinal care for opioid use disorder (OUD) and stimulant use disorder (StUD) as well as support recovery for adults and adolescents.

The overall goal of this funding is to promote and support ED linkage to care via multidisciplinary teams utilizing navigators, to include strategies like focused connections during care for conditions that may represent sequelae of substance use and enhanced universal screening for substance use disorder (SUD) among patients presenting for other reasons to EDs to identify new opportunities to engage in and link to care.

All questions regarding this RFA must be directed via email, no later than 12:00 pm on December 4, 2023. All questions must include the specific section of the RFA about which the potential applicant is requesting clarification. Answers to all questions will be posted on PA eMarketplace. To review the responses to posed questions, select ‘Solicitations’ and search for RFA #67-166. Applications must be received no later than 1:30 pm on January 16, 2024.

An additional update regarding the educational modules: By end of year 2023, the PA-SUN team intends to release asynchronous (self-study) education modules to aid EDs in increasing knowledge on topics such as harm reduction, buprenorphine initiation, linkage to care, and stigma.  For updates regarding the education modules please visit the PA-SUN website.

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