Wilmington, DE, May 30, 2019

For pioneering work in early intervention for those suffering from substance use disorder, Christiana Care Health System’s Project Engage program received national recognition in Addiction Policy Forum’s Delaware Innovations to Address Addiction report.

“We are honored to receive this recognition,” said Linda Lang, M.D., chair of the Department of Psychiatry and physician leader of the Behavioral Health Service Line at Christiana Care. “The United States has experienced an enormous health crisis due to the ravages of substance use disorder, and our innovative work in Delaware to address this crisis continues to serve as a national model. Early intervention efforts through Project Engage have helped so many in our community to get the help they need. We are actively involved in bringing our successes to hospitals in other states so they can develop similar programs.”

Delaware ranks fifth in the nation for its drug overdose rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2018 in Delaware, 345 people died from opioid overdoses, a 12 percent increase from the previous year.

Project Engage is an early intervention and referral to substance use disorder treatment program designed to help hospital patients who may be struggling with alcohol or drug use. Project Engage integrates peers in recovery, who are called engagement specialists, into the clinical setting in the hospital to meet with patients at their bedside about their alcohol or drug use. The program identifies individuals at their reachable moment in the hospital and acts upon it.

“The value to getting the individual into treatment is immeasurable,” says Terry Horton, M.D., Project Engage medical director. “Project Engage acts during a critical time. Our embedded engagement specialists perform a vital role. They serve as recovery ambassadors and break down barriers.”

Project Engage includes a team of 15 caregivers, in partnership with Connections Community Support Programs, Inc. The team has successfully connected more than 800 patients into treatment for substance use disorder last year. A recent study shows a 59% reduction in readmission rates for emergency department patients connected to substance use disorder treatment.

The program has been operating for more than a decade and continues to grow. Most recently, Project Engage expanded to provide 24/7 coverage in Christiana Care’s three emergency departments with a pilot program assisting emergency department providers in treating opioid withdrawal and connecting patients to community-based drug treatment programs.

Project Engage is also a key part of Christiana Care’s pioneering opioid withdrawal clinical pathway, implemented in 2016. The pathway screens for and identifies hospitalized patients who are in withdrawal. More than 50% of these patients successfully connected to ongoing drug treatment. With the expansion to 24/7 coverage in the emergency department, the number of engagements conducted each year has grown from 2,000 to 3,000. The program has served more than 10,000 patients since it began in 2008.

Project Engage has collaborated with health systems in other states, including West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia, to develop similar peer recovery programs.

The Addiction Policy Forum, headquartered in Washington, D.C., with resources and services in every state, is a nationwide nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating addiction as a major health problem.

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About ChristianaCare

Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, ChristianaCare is one of the country’s most dynamic health care organizations, centered on improving health outcomes, making high-quality care more accessible and lowering health care costs. ChristianaCare includes an extensive network of primary care and outpatient services, home health care, urgent care centers, three hospitals (1,430 beds), a freestanding emergency department, a Level I trauma center and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, a comprehensive stroke center and regional centers of excellence in heart and vascular care, cancer care and women’s health. It also includes the pioneering Gene Editing Institute.

ChristianaCare is nationally recognized as a great place to work, rated by Forbes as the 2nd best health system for diversity and inclusion, and the 29th best health system to work for in the United States, and by IDG Computerworld as one of the nation’s Best Places to Work in IT. ChristianaCare is rated by Healthgrades as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals and continually ranked among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek and other national quality ratings. ChristianaCare is a nonprofit teaching health system with more than 260 residents and fellows. With its groundbreaking Center for Virtual Health and a focus on population health and value-based care, ChristianaCare is shaping the future of health care.

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