ME SUD Learning Community Newsletter

Volume 8 | August 2023

Maine SUD Learning Community Newsletter

MAINE HIGHLIGHTS

Jessika T. Morin, MD

Jessika T. Morin, MD, a native of Maine and US Army veteran, is medical director of Everest Recovery Center with over 9 years of experience working in the field of addiction medicine. She also works as the medical director of Catholic Charities Maine’s Substance Use Disorder Program and functions as their residential physician at St. Francis Recovery Center. In the last 4 years at Southern Maine Health Care, she has been instrumental in securing $2.2 million in grant funding used to address prevention, treatment, and recovery of substance use disorders in rural parts of York County. She is board certified in both Family and Addiction Medicine. The courage and determination of her patients to engage in recovery inspires Dr. Morin every day. She has often been quoted as saying that working with patients in recovery fills her soul with meaning.

Controlled Substance Prescribing 2023 Training Requirements & Guidance

What you need to know about the…

Section 1263 of the ‘Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023’

otherwise known as the Medication Access and Training Expansion (MATE) Act

As of January 2023, the DEA has eliminated the X-waiver requirement.

All providers with an active DEA license can now prescribe buprenorphine as medication for addiction treatment (MAT) without any special licensing.

At the same time, the DEA added a one-time requirement that all clinicians must complete 8 hours of training related to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment.

This training is due at the time you apply for or renew your DEA license, starting June 27, 2023.

If you previously completed the X-waiver or other CME training on opioid use disorder (OUD) or SUD in the past, that counts, as does Board certification in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry from the American Board of Medical Specialties, American Board of Addiction Medicine, or the American Osteopathic Association—you are exempt.

Additionally, if you completed medical school or NP/PA training within the past 5 years, and that training included at least 8 hours of OUD/SUD curriculum, you are also exempt.

Many prescribers in Maine will have already satisfied the 8-hour requirement if they have been fulfilling Public Law 2015, Chapter 488, which has required 3 hours of continuing education every 2 years on topics related to the prescription of opioid medication since April 2016.

Project Echo ®

ME SUD Learning Community

Adolescents & Young Adults ECHO: Expanding Services for OUD/SUD, Mental Health and Other Complexities

The Co-Occurring Collaborative Serving Maine is launching its third Project ECHO: Expanding Services for Behavioral Health Complexities for adolescents and transition-aged youth. The nine-month Project ECHO brings together Prescribers and their Teams.

Project ECHO: Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is an approach that involves case-based learning across expert faculty and participants through regularly scheduled meetings via video conferencing.

Intended Audience: Primary care and specialty care MOUD and SUD prescribers, individually or with their team members from practices located in Maine, who seek support to develop, implement, improve, and sustain OUD/SUD treatment for adolescents and young adults.

Beginning September 13,2023

Recurring every 2nd Wednesday of the month through May 8, 2024

FMI: Kate Chichester, Executive Director, CCSME, cchichester@ccsme.org

To join, please complete the application at https://forms.office.com/r/SWwJ7TcjfU

A Zoom link will be sent to you after the review of your application.

More Info

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Do you have patients prescribed multiple medications for psychiatric conditions including substance use disorders, and wonder how they impact each other?

Do you want to start a patient on a new medication but worry about drug interactions between this medication and current medications (for any indication)?

Do you need a primer on CYP450 enzymes and outcomes of inhibition and induction, or a refresher on pharmacodynamic interactions (e.g., additive serotonin burden or QTc prolongation)?

Feel free to ask; we have an expert pharmacist on the faculty who is here to help!

For these questions and technical assistance, contact the ME SUD Learning Community

RECOVERY NOTES

Personal Recovery Story

Transformed: Painter

Eric Sorensen

By Amy Paradysz

“There’s hope,” says Eric Sorensen. “I keep it simple. I tell them there’s hope.”

That’s what he says when he meets someone living what his life was for decades – using narcotics, drinking, sleeping in back alleys, pulling food out of dumpsters, blacking out because of massive withdrawals, not knowing where he was. “Years ago, my biggest fear was that I’d keep living,” he says, disclosing that he lost his wife to an overdose. “Today I have such gratitude that I’m sitting here healthy, fed and showered, and I’m actually alive.