Page 30 - Christiana Care Focus

ct Engage honored for innovation in addiction treatment
The Addiction Policy Forum recognizes Christiana Care’s novel strategy of early intervention and peer engagement in tackling substance abuse
Proje
For pioneering work in early intervention for people with substance use disorder, Christiana Care Health System’s Project Engage program received national recognition
in the 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.”
“ Project Engage acts during a critical time. Our embedded engagement specialists perform
a vital role. They serve as recovery ambassadors and break down barriers.”
Terry Horton, M.D.
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% increase from the previous year.
Designed to help hospital patients who may be struggling with alcohol or drug use, Project Engage provides early intervention and referrals to substance use disorder treatment. 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 on 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 successfully connected more than 800 patients with 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.
This expansion includes 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 have successfully connected to ongoing drug treatment. With the expansion to 24/7 coverage in the
28 CHRISTIANA CARE HEALTH SYSTEM
Terry Horton, M.D., accepts the Addiction Policy Forum recognition award from Delaware Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long.
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