Psychologists are also helping to ensure that today's nonpsychologist addiction workforce is up to date on evidence-based practices. Among them is Rachel Winograd, PhD, a research associate professor at the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, University of Missouri–St. Louis.
With a project called Missouri Opioid-Heroin Overdose Prevention and Education, Winograd is combating myths about naloxone, including the belief that it encourages opioid use. The curriculum Winograd and her team created for emergency responders, social service providers and the public replaces the traditional focus on abstinence with a focus on harm reduction.
In another project, Winograd is promoting a Medication First model that seeks to eliminate barriers to rapid access to medications for addiction treatment. Her team has already trained 15,000-plus counselors, social workers, case managers, peers, physicians, nurses and administrators and treated 4,000 individuals. According to preliminary data, clients served by such professionals are more likely to get medication and stay in treatment longer. Median monthly treatment costs are down 19 percent.
Other psychologists are investigating the best way to train the addiction workforce. As director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration–funded New England Addiction Technology Transfer Center, Sara Becker, PhD, trains psychologists, social workers, physicians and other addiction treatment providers with a model she calls the Science to Service Laboratory. This approach to training layers ongoing support—including leadership coaching and performance feedback—on top of didactic workshops.
Research by Becker and colleagues suggests that providers receiving this more comprehensive training are more likely to adopt evidence-based interventions than are those who receive workshops alone (Substance Abuseopens in new window, Vol. 37, No. 1, 2016).
