Surveilling Methadone: COVID-19 and Future Directions | Drug Researchers' Roundtable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAPYsutNpnw

In this webinar, panelists unpack the myriad ways the current system is overly punitive and demanding of patients who must comply with strict requirements in order to receive methadone, a life-saving medication. Panelists discuss the racial disparities in access to methadone versus buprenorphine and how this reflects broader racialized drug user myths. Several panelists who currently take methadone speak about their ongoing experiences with methadone prescribing and dispensing, including how they have been impacted by recent changes to methadone policies in light of COVID-19, and the policies they would like to make permanent.

Speakers include Dr. Pooja Lagisetty, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor, Division of General Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Helen Redmond, LCSW, Journalist and Senior Editor at Filter and a Documentary Filmmaker; Laura Shaver, President, British Columbia Association of People on Methadone; and Louise Vincent, MPH, Executive Director, Urban Survivors Union.

The Department of Research and Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance co-hosted this Roundtable with Filter magazine.

Methadone manifesto and methadone delivery system presentation recording (6 minutes 45 seconds) Yarelix Estrada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et57jj6pr3M&t=27s

National Safer Supply Community of Practice: 2021-10-07: Uprooting Medical Violence - Nanky Rai

Webinar Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2_AuaucNAc  (1 hour 28 minutes)

Slides:  https://prezi.com/p/av_inyqcvejd/uprooting-medical-violence-sos-cop-presentation/

This fantastic talk challenges us all to develop an approach to Safer Supply programs that challenge oppressive practices in health care and that does not replicate or amplify power and privilege as it exists in society. Listeners come away with a better understanding of how medical violence operates, the systems of power that enable violence in our health care settings, and strategies uprooting oppression and growing health justice.

National Safer Supply Community of Practice: Safer Supply 101 — An Introduction, Orientation and Backgrounder Corey Ranger Safer Program AVI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRaGRu-ydSA&t=1072s

Join Corey Ranger from the SAFER program at AVI in Victoria BC for an introduction about safer supply, what it is, what it isn’t, where it comes from, and where medical models fall on the continuum of safer supply.   AVI Health and Community Services.

Women who Use Drugs and Narcofeminism: Changing the Narrative | August 13  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzjkfve_LMo&t=1044s

Urban Survivors Union’s Narcofeminism Story Share in the US, the Antiprohibitionist Women’s Network in Brazil, and Metzineres in Spain, across the globe from each other, are all seeking to not just fulfill our material needs as women who use drugs and sell sex, but also our need for self-expression in culture projects.  Narcofeminism Story Share has been undertaken for three years by a diverse group of activist women who sell sex and use drugs. It delineates the difference between the stories we tell to survive--the ones steeped in reductive abstinence model dogma which we tell probation officers, social workers, and other gatekeepers---and those we tell to make sense of our messy, complicated lives. Narcofeminism Story Share honors truths we’ve only heard before in the informal oral history of other drug-using and sex-selling women, behind closed doors, but never in mainstream representations of our lives. It is about crafting and telling stories which disrupt the ubiquitous narratives upholding stigma against us, allowing for our criminalization and victimization as well as our own self-hatred. During this presentation, Narcofeminism Story Share leaders Louise Vincent,Dinah Ortiz, and Caty Simon will tell their own stories challenging mainstream narratives about topics like women’s initiation into injection drug use by men and the overdose crisis. They will discuss how writing, editing, and telling these stories helped them challenge their own internalized stigma, built up over years of criminalization and trauma. Finally, they’ll explain how through this project, story sharing has become a vital organizing tool in UrbanSurvivors Union and North Carolina Survivors Union work with many different populations, from women with Hep C to methadone patients.Then, Priscilla Gadalha will tackle how women self-organize, creating theNetwork of Anti Prohibitionist Women, which is leading the debate around the impact of the war on drugs in Brazil.Aura Roig From Metzineres will pick up the thread here. Metzineres was formed in 2017. It sees itself as much more than a women’s safe consumption site or even a site for mutual aid and material help, but rather also as a community space where criminalized women can practice the arts and enjoy their leisure. So much is said in harm reduction spaces about our immediate needs as women who use drugs and sell sex and as women who’ve experienced violence, about how we can fight HIV, Hep-C, and overdose in our communities. Yet, so little is said about our need for self-actualization.Thus, Metzineres makes a point of extending a wide range of options for self-healing, the creation of bonds of trust, the exchange of knowledge, self-defense, solidarity, and mutual support, not just health care, shelter, food, clothing, work opportunities, technical training, and safe consumption. Roig will outline how Metzineres is a community which treats every woman who participates as a protagonist, shaping the program to her curiosities, interests, and desires. It is not simply about need, but about what drug-using and sex-selling women and gender non-conforming people desire and strive for---this can range from art projects to boxing, and encompass so much more. She will go on to explain how the women at Metzineres form herstories they share with each other out of the bold stuff of each woman’s life, andelaborate on the best practices for such narrative sharing

Patt Denning (Harm Reduction Therapy Center) talking about harm reduction for friends and family.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XElQlOcpBd0 This hour long talk introduces alternatives to the disease model of addiction and abstinence only approaches to substance use disorder treatment.  Check out this talk by pioneering harm reduction therapist about substance use and the impact of stigma and shame on family and their loved one, pathways to better health and healing.

Low Barrier Buprenorphine: Treatment Guide for People Experiencing Homelessness  April 2021 webinar/training (attached slides)  The webinar recording is here: https://vimeo.com/538734559  

Speakers:  Karah Cohen, Project Home; Barry Zevin, San Francisco Department of Public Health, Cheryl Ho, valley Homeless Healthcare Program, Joanna Eveland, San Francisco Department of Public Health

HHRC Webinar: Whole-Person Care for People Experiencing Homelessness and Opioid Use Disorder  (with ASL + live transcription)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caD5gP7Qy-g

In this webinar held on August 25, 2021, panelists explored Opioid use disorder (OUD) and how impacted individuals may be unable to access or obtain housing, health and/or behavioral health care, and recovery support services. They introduce the "Whole Person Care for People Experiencing Homelessness and Opioid Use Disorder Toolkit," a new resource to support and assist people experiencing homelessness and OUD with a whole-person care approach that supports and facilitates the recovery journey and a fulfilling life in their communities.  https://hhrctraining.org/

Harm Reduction Works Zoom Meetings

https://www.facebook.com/groups/harmreductionworksHRW/

The “harm reduction works” meetings welcome all goals- abstinence, partial abstinence, safer use, managed use. These meeting are super welcoming, have started up in many locations across the U.S. and are a great place for people who want an alternative to (or addition to) other recovery support.

Online meetings (zoom) and in person meetings- find the schedule here.  

Medication-Assisted Recovery Anonymous Meetings via Zoom https://www.mara-international.org/find-a-meeting

Do you use prescribed medication to treat various drug and alcohol use disorders?  Many people who utilize evidence-based science to aid in their recovery sometimes feel uncomfortable in their day to day lives.  Additionally, a multitude of people on this healing path have even felt unwelcome at traditional recovery meetings.  We understand.  At Medication-Assisted Recovery Anonymous (MARA), you're always welcome!

SAMHSA Opioid Treatment Program Directory by State.  Find programs in your area 

SAMHSA MAT guidelines to expand and maintain methadone and suboxone treatment access COVID 19 

Webinar: Increased Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder during the COVID-19 Epidemic and Beyond https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CblR7XmeGNY&feature=youtu.be 

Webinar slides   

https://www.networkforphl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/7-23-2020-Webinar-Slides.pdf 

In response to the concurrent epidemics of COVID-19 and opioid-related harm, federal and state agencies have taken steps to temporarily remove some legal and regulatory barriers to treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). These changes have the potential to improve access to lifesaving medications for OUD (MOUD), particularly among those most at risk. However, they are set to expire with the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration. This webinar describes these legal and regulatory modifications, how they are being used to increase access to OUD treatment, and opportunities to permanently increase access to MOUD.

DPA Webinar: Improving Substance Use Disorder Treatment During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic June 12, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7KowpDPjUA&t=2915s

Access to effective substance use disorder (SUD) treatment has long been out of reach for many. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced treatment providers and clients to limit in-person interaction, reducing longstanding barriers to treatment for some, but increasing challenges for others. Speakers: Dr. Anjali Taneja, MD, MPH, Casa de Salud New Mexico; Dr. Kima Taylor, MD, MPH, Anka Consulting LLC; Dr. Lisa Puglisi, MD, Yale University, Transitions Clinic-New Haven; Dr. Richard Rawson, PhD, University of California Los Angeles, University of Vermont; Dr. Roopa Sethi, MD, University of Kansas 

Video: Getting Normal by Sawbuck productions  2008

​This film contrasts the current experiences of methadone maintenance therapy patients with their past experiences as heroin addicts. "Getting Normal" goes beyond labels and slogans by demonstrating the day-to-day differences between the methadone and heroin lifestyles.   www.sawbuckproductions.org 

Video: Methadone: Truth, Lies & Experiences!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YutA202mjw

25 minutes awesome rant by English death rocker refuting misinformation she encountered going down a youtube rabbit hole about methadone.  Methadone was a great tool for her.  She talks about the benefits and the downsides of methadone.

Stop The Stigma of methadone!! It saves!!

Christina talks about how methadone has helped her, the stigma against it, how methadone has made more space for her to address her mental health concerns.  Impact of her heroin use on relationships, family.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jEoEtHeXuo

Video: The best opioid addiction treatment is more opioids  VICE NEWS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F9QSJAWFeg

Video: Ted Talk: The harm reduction model of drug addiction treatment | Mark Tyndall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfzkBGgxXGE

15 minutes (covers supervised injection sites, methadone- canada perspective) 

Harm reduction VS Abstinence [Methadone and Suboxone maintenance treatment]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc2yYKLX3J0

5 1/2 minute video  (Harm reduction education including suboxone and methadone)