How has Covid-19 impacted Overdose Death Rates ?

Tuesday, May 18, 2021 | 12:00 -1:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CT | Virtual - WebEx

Overview:

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven unprecedented changes around the world, in our industry, and with all of us personally.  Overdose death rates have risen, drug and alcohol use has increased, treatment programs have seen a change in admissions and in the moral of their staff and patients.  Additionally, as the result of the national emergency declaration activating the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, telehealth benefits we greatly increased and treatment programs quickly expanded the use of technology and adopted telehealth options. This has provided many new challenges as well as opportunities – from care delivery to helping staff, individuals in treatment, and those in recovery cope with this “new normal”.   It also brings with it both a myriad of new questions and tremendous opportunities.  How will we know if telehealth options work at least as well as traditional service delivery? Will people who would have not gotten help otherwise be interested in treatment?  Will we still be able to provide these options when the National emergency declaration ends?  This session will provide data from various industry surveys completed between March and September 2020 on issues related to these changes in our field – from how staff, programs and people in recovery are coping, to increased “deaths of despair”, to the benefits, effects, and value of the skyrocketing adoption of technology-based services, to the escalating need to provide outcomes to measure this care.

Leanring Objectives:

  • Identify increases in depression, anxiety and “deaths of despair” resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Understand how services delivery has changed in our field secondary to the Covid-19 pandemic, including how those changes might not be sustainable after the ending of the National Emergency Declaration.
  • Understand how broader adoption of technology can enable more people to get care and those in care to get more specialized services.
  • Describe the importance of quality benchmarks or outcomes measurement when utilizing virtual or telehealth delivered care.

Recovery Centers of America has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7002. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Recovery Centers of America is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. This course qualifies for 1 credit hour.