5 Innovative Approaches to Advance Recovery Care

Each year in September, National Recovery Month is observed, offering opportunities for the professionals who care for these patients, persons who have substance use or mental health/behavioral disorders, persons in recovery, and their family and friends to both learn about what can be a deadly disease and shine a spotlight on the resources and individuals available to provide treatment and support. Starting in 2025, the overarching theme will be, “Every Person. Every Family. Every Community.”¹

For 2024, through a monthlong collaboration with our Strategic Alliance Partner, UPMC Health Plan, we brought you a limited series of 5 podcasts and exclusive companion video content on aspects of recovery that included the notorious opioid epidemic; the importance of peer support, compassionate care, and trauma care; and disparities in rural behavioral health care. While we recap this series here, we strongly encourage listening to these episodes and watching the video interviews that accompany them if new to this series or revisiting to perhaps learn something new.

1. Combatting the Opioid Epidemic: Insights From the Front Lines²

In our first episode, we sat for an insightful conversation with Michael Lynch, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and an attending emergency physician and medical toxicologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. With a wealth of knowledge on what happens to the body when a person overdoses, the short- and long-term ramifications of overdose-related damage, and strategies to combat the overdose epidemic in Pennsylvania, which came in at #4 for drug overdose mortality in 2022, Lynch shared his perspectives on making inroads against addiction and the progress he has witnessed through his work with the UPMC Toxicology Telemedicine Bridge Clinic.

“The most important message is hope. It's understanding that addiction is hard. It’s a brain disease; it's not a choice, it's not a moral failing,” he said. “Sometimes I think that gets misunderstood and leads to a lot of stigma—but there is also hope. Like any chronic brain disease, there are treatments that are effective.”

2. Providing Patients a Voice in Their Recovery³

Speaking with Rebekah Sedlock, DSW, LCSW, project director of substance use disorder services and recovery, Community Care Behavioral Health Organization, part of the UPMC Insurance Services Division, and Mandy Fauble, PhD, LCSW, director of clinical care services, UPMC Western Behavioral Health at Safe Harbor, we learned of the complexities that often plague persons with both mental health conditions and substance use disorders, and optimal approaches for harm reduction in these patient populations. They also spoke to the importance of community outreach, the health care disparities that individuals with coverage through Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program often face when attempting to access care for a mental health condition and/or a substance use disorder, and ensuring client program engagement for those in ongoing recovery.

“The judgment that people experience or maybe the challenges that they faced in trying to get help is a big barrier,” Fauble said, “but I promise that there are so many people out there that want to deliver judgment-free and compassionate care.”

National Recovery Month is recognized each year in September, and for 2024, we marked the month with a special podcast and exclusive video series with our Strategic Alliance Partner, UPMC Health Plan. | Image Credit: © jayzynism-stock.adobe.com

3. Healing Wounds Through Peer Support⁴

The work of Community Care Behavioral Health was once again at the heart of Managed Care Cast, when halfway through the month we caught up with Kim MacDonald-Wilson, ScD, CPRP, senior program director, Recovery and Wellness Transformation, and Tracy Carney, CPS, CPRP, senior recovery and resiliency specialist. Recovery is a lifelong and challenging process, they underscored, and peer support is integral to its success and durability. Another vital component to recovery is making sure to involve clients in their recovery journey vs imposing treatment upon them, and through this dialogue, listeners learn why this is essential, the challenges peer specialists encounter when working with clients, and the tremendous impact of overcoming obstacles.

“One of the primary things we want people to know is that we're here to help in any way,” MacDonald-Wilson said. “If you're not sure who to turn to, what services might be helpful to you in behavioral health or what things might really help to make your life better, we want people to call us.”

4. Uplifting Rural Communities⁵

In our penultimate episode, Amy Herschell, PhD, associate vice president, Program Implementation and Evaluation, Community Care Behavioral Health Organization, and Jessica Meyers, MSEd, senior advisor for implementation, UPMC Center for High-Value Health Care brought to the forefront stark disparities in behavioral health care access that often permeate rural and underserved communities. Principal reasons for their inadequate behavioral health care resources include lack on 2 fronts—funding and tailored interventions—which necessitate collaborative payer-provider-community relationships that serve to integrate physical and behavioral health care through much-needed grants.

“The grants help us not only to think through what gaps are in services and fill those gaps or needs, but also to make sure that the services are as innovative and state-of-the-art,” Herschell explained. “And they help us also to sometimes have additional resources to evaluate the outcomes of services.”

5. Sustaining Compassionate Trauma Care Across Communities⁶

Bringing this National Recovery Month series to a close was our discussion with Lyndra Bills, MD, senior medical director, and Shari Hutchison, MS, director of program evaluation and outcomes, both with Community Care Behavioral Health Organization (CCBH), on how knowledge of trauma and its impact on physical and psychological health can serve as a strong foundation on which to build and optimize a network of health care providers who better understand and can therefore meet the needs of communities requiring this specialized care. Through ongoing evidence-based training and learning initiatives developed with the Behavioral Health Alliance of Rural Pennsylvania, CCBH has been able to spur change within provider practices by making the addressing of trauma an integral component, with long-term sustainability for rural communities.

“A lot of key studies have brought everyone kind of up to speed and on the same page about the importance of recognizing the impact of significant traumatic stress for both the individual and organizations,” Bills stated. “The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study would be one of the main ones that many people reference, and it's kind of well recognized and people understand that.”

References

1. Editorial staff. What is National Recovery Month? American Addiction Centers. Updated August 20, 2024. Accessed November 26, 2024. https://americanaddictioncenters.org/blog/national-recovery-month

2. Shaw M. Managed Care Cast. Combatting the opioid epidemic: insights from the front lines. AJMC®. Published September 2, 2024. Accessed November 26, 2024. https://www.ajmc.com/view/combatting-the-opioid-epidemic-insights-from-the-front-lines

3. Shaw M. Managed Care Cast. Providing patients a voice in their recovery. AJMC®. Published September 9, 2024. Accessed November 26, 2024. https://www.ajmc.com/view/providing-patients-a-voice-in-their-recovery

4. Shaw M. Managed Care Cast. Healing wounds through peer support. AJMC®. Published September 16, 2024. Accessed November 26, 2024. https://www.ajmc.com/view/healing-wounds-through-peer-support

5. Shaw M. Managed Care Cast. Uplifting rural communities. AJMC®. Published September 23, 2024. Accessed November 26, 2024. https://www.ajmc.com/view/uplifting-rural-communities

6. Shaw M. Managed Care Cast. Sustaining compassionate trauma care across communities. AJMC®. Published September 30, 2024. Accessed November 26, 2024. https://www.ajmc.com/view/sustaining-compassionate-trauma-care-across-communities