Two more patients of mine died this past weekend. Two more on top of two more on top of two more. I have lost more patients in the last three years from opioid deaths than I have lost patients from all causes during my entire career.
Might common and widespread practices surrounding Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) actually be harming patients? Steve Martin, MD, EdM, is lead author on a paper recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that examines the evidence. The findings in the article will form the backbone of a course that will be given to all Massachusetts medical school students. UMass CIPC is leading the team that will build this critical training.
Tina Runyan often posts on this blog about wellness and clinician burnout. This post was prompted by the shootings in the Pittsburgh synagogue. Read her comments about the concept and reality of sanctuary by clicking on the post title.
New CIPC faculty member, Dr. Paula Gardinar is an advocate of Integrative Medical Group Visits (IMGV).
Seeing patients and families as a group is not new to behavioral health professionals, but it is a more novel approach when the issue being addressed is medical rather than behavioral or a combination of both.
Stress is universal and a part of our everyday lives. Is all stress harmful? Can we learn to accommodate stress and make more skillful choices about how we respond to this inevitable part of our lives?
Read what Dr. Runyan wrote to our family medicine residents by clicking on the title.
The opioid epidemic inflicts significant human and economic damage in the United States. A July article in the New England Journal of Medicine by Drs. Sarah Wakeman and Michael Barnett provides a helpful summary of the myths and realities associated with buprenorphine (Suboxone) and the opioid epidemic.
The UMass Center for Integrated Primary Care continues to play an active role in training primary care teams to respond to the needs of patients with Opioid Use Disorder.
We all know this word – the property of not lasting or enduring for an indefinite period of time. But what does that really mean with regards to mindfulness and our experiences?
In the second part of this two-part post, Motivational Interviewing teacher and coach, Ali Hall reflects on how to listen more deeply to those who are struggling to change their behaviors.
There is an internationally recognized tool for measuring the effectiveness of a clinical encounter using Motivational Interviewing and it is called the MITI (Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity). In this post, Ali Hall, who acts as MI coach in our MI Certificate course reflects on one of the first times she used the MITI--on a patient conversation she herself had with a chronic smoker.
What you think might be fostering connections to others may actually be amplifying your own critical voice or taking you out of the present moment, hijacking your attention away from your physical company.
It is logical to ask if Motivational Interviewing can be an effective intervention for patients struggling with issues of weight and obesity. As with any chronic health condition, MI can be helpful, but it is not a cure. The question to ask is, “What is the target?”
Primary care is an appropriate setting for managing many chronic conditions. Its longitudinal practice of medicine may seem ideal to handle this intractable issue. But modern PC practices are also fast-paced and mostly limited to brief encounters. Obesity cannot be cured in a fifteen-minute consult.
Opioid addiction is a national epidemic. Effective treatment options exist but are challenging to access, especially for patients who live in remote, rural areas. There is a long history of separation of treatment of addiction and medicine and a disconnect between primary care and treatment for opioid addiction. Our project has brought evidence-based treatment to a population in great need.
UMass CIPC recently partnered with an Accountable Care Organization in rural New York, Bassett Healthcare Network, to expand their provision of Medication Assisted Treatment. Our work together began in January of 2017 and was primarily delivered via video conferencing. This post was written by James Andersen, PhD a former behavioral health fellow at UMMS and a key partner in this collaboration.
