In President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union he described a four-part Unity Agenda, and declared, “By this summer, the Federal Bureau of Prisons will ensure that each of their 122 facilities are equipped and trained to provide in-house medication-assisted treatment (MAT).”
The UMass Chan Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (FMCH) has been on the cutting edge of caring for communities affected by substance use disorders (SUD) for nearly two decades. Our Family Medicine faculty are leaders in delivering care and training teams to provide life-saving medication treatment to those with opioid use disorder (OUD). The Center for Integrated Care (CIPC) has mirrored the FMCH department’s mission to address SUDs, and has worked to address critical training gaps in the care of patients with SUDs, which often lead to disparities and barriers in access to SUD treatment. Our department’s commitment to and excellence in caring for patients with SUDs led to being recruited by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to lead a system wide educational and training initiative as part of their expansion to provide the full spectrum of medication treatments for OUD, adding methadone to established programs that also offer buprenorphine and naltrexone.
The CIPC delivered a 3-day intensive training entitled, “Treatment of Patients with Opioid Use Disorder with MOUD” for BOP clinical leaders on March 21-23. The training was led by: Ruth Potee, MD, FASAM, Stephen Martin, MD, EdM, FASAM, Jennifer Bradford, MD, MPH and the leadership of CIPC, Daniel Mullin, PsyD, MPH, and Amber Cahill, PsyD. The event could not have taken place without the tireless production efforts of Amy Green, CIPC Manger, and Jess Baer, MA, CIPC Instructional Designer.
The BOP’s clinicians are responsible for the care of the approximately 150,000 individuals in their custody. Once the clinicians have been trained, the BOP estimates at least 10% of those in their custody will receive treatment with MOUD, approximately 15,000 people. This will make the BOP one of the largest addiction treatment organizations in the country.
The early feedback suggests that the training program was remarkably successful and captivating. One attendee said, “All of the presenters were dynamic speakers and personalities who had an excellent understanding of the material and were able to convey that information in an engaging way. The presenters' enthusiasm was contagious!! One of the best programs that I have ever attended.”
Over the next few months, the CIPC will be finalizing an asynchronous, online course to be completed by all of the BOP’s clinicians. CIPC is thrilled for this impactful opportunity to enhance medication treatment services among this population, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons is looking forward to working with CIPC on future projects!
