Welcome and Annual Recap (Rob Valuck)

• Consortium 10-Year Anniversary
• Overview of the Opioid Crisis Status
• Consortium Highlights and Accomplishments: Work Groups, Fentanyl Response, Opioid Settlement Regions
• Center Strategic Plan

Settlement Funding Distribution in Colorado

Moving Forward: Highlights of Upcoming Consortium Efforts (José Esquibel)

• Work Groups and Consortium Projects
• 2022 Legislative Session Funding Opportunities
• Grant Writing Assistance Program
• New Initiatives

Award Announcements

Description: The passage of SB22-181 allocated $5.9 million for increasing the number of peer support professionals in Colorado. A group of peer support professionals met in August 2022 for a Summit on Advancing the Peer Support Profession in Colorado to discuss recommendations in three areas of focus:

• Enhancing peer training and professional development
• Educating organizations on why peers should be certified and how to support education of their peer workforce
• Defining an agreed upon client grievance process when concerns are raised about a peer professional in the capacity of their professional relationship with a client.

The recommendations, which apply to a variety of fields, including substance use disorders, behavioral health, and health care, will be reviewed and discussed as part of the panel presentation.

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Description:  This session will discuss the importance of harm reduction and naloxone dispensing in hospitals and why hospitals are keystones in the harm reduction and treatment system. The discussion will include evidence available for hospital-based naloxone dispensing and why it should be a standard of care in 2022 and beyond. This session will highlight the successes of the Colorado Naloxone Project in naloxone dispensing by hospitals from emergency departments across Colorado and introduce a new initiative, Colorado MOMs (Maternal Overdose Matters), that aims to dispense naloxone from every obstetric unit and NICU in the state.

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Description: Contingency management is an incentive program for treatment of substance use disorder based on operant conditioning. Previously underutilized, CM has been thrust into the spotlight by raising awareness and changing regulations related to incentives.

Nearly a dozen treatment facilities now have CM programs, up from two years ago. Amidst this great ado, The Steadman Group conducted an education and fact-finding mission to improve people’s knowledge of the practice, financials, and regulations related to contingency management and to chart a path forward in Colorado. A summary of findings will be shared and discussed in this session.

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Description: BIND stands for Benzodiazepine-Induced Neurological Dysfunction, new terminology used to identify a frequent, yet often overlooked protracted state of benzodiazepine withdrawal. Several members of the Consortium’s Benzodiazepine Action Work Group are part of the research team identifying this condition, including the work group co-chairs, Alexis Ritvo, MD, MPH and D.E. Foster.

In this session, Alexis and D will define BIND and its symptomatology in addition to the research behind it. They will also present recent successes from the Benzodiazepine Action Work Group (BAWG), including the provider education lunch and learn sessions in May of this year and the development of the first benzodiazepine-specific peer support training program for recovery coaches.

BAWG’s membership includes leaders from several national benzodiazepine organizations and has become one of the most influential and active benzodiazepine organizations in the country.

Learning Objectives:

1. To identify and define Benzodiazepine-Induced Neurological Dysfunction (BIND), the research behind it, and the advocacy that is promoting its acceptance.
2. To review the impact of BAWG’s provider education lunch and learn sessions.
3. To outline the benzodiazepine-specific peer coach training program to be launched in 2023.

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Description: Public awareness campaigns about fentanyl are intended to provide Coloradans with accurate and persuasive information to prevent fentanyl and other overdose deaths. This session will review the Consortium’s Keep the Party Safe overdose prevention campaign and will include information on how community groups can become involved. Information will also be provided about other public awareness campaigns and how state agencies are collaborating on fentanyl awareness campaigns.

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Description: Recent legislation made several statutory changes to the Colorado PDMP that take effect in 2022, including updates concerning delegate access and statutory requirements that prescribers query the PDMP before writing certain opioid and benzodiazepine prescriptions. This session for prescribers, pharmacists, delegate PDMP users, and stakeholders will include training and resources regarding registration and use of the Colorado PDMP and will discuss several statutory changes that took effect in 2022.

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