ORN Summer 2025 - Linking Patients to Treatment With Opioid Use Disorder: Breaking Down Barriers with MATTERS-Handout - Linking Patients to Treatment With Opioid Use Disorder

Handout - Linking Patients to Treatment With Opioid Use Disorder - J Lynch, DO

Pdf Summary

The Opioid Response Network (ORN), funded by SAMHSA and coordinated by the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, provides communities across the U.S. with evidence-based resources and technical assistance to address opioid and stimulant use disorders. ORN supports prevention, treatment, recovery, and harm reduction efforts via expert local consultants and educational programming.<br /><br />A key initiative, MATTERS (Medication Assisted Treatment, Engagement, and Referral Service), offers a rapid referral platform that connects individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) programs 24/7. MATTERS supports patients through medication and transportation vouchers, peer support, telemedicine evaluations, and follow-up services to improve treatment access and retention. It partners with over 2,500 appointment sites, pharmacies, peer organizations, and law enforcement agencies across New York State.<br /><br />Research associated with MATTERS highlights its success: over 88% complete telemedicine visits, 77% receive same-day buprenorphine prescriptions, and nearly 70% are referred to long-term care. Telemedicine referrals notably increase 30-day treatment retention compared to emergency department (ED) referrals. The program has expanded statewide, training clinicians and linking hundreds of patients to community care, providing a scalable model to reduce overdose deaths.<br /><br />Additional focus areas include public health surveillance using prehospital naloxone administration data to track overdose trends, optimal naloxone dosing practices informed by police bodycam footage analysis, and statewide distribution campaigns of fentanyl and xylazine test strips as harm reduction tools.<br /><br />Education efforts underscore the critical need to reduce stigma, improve funding, and radically expand access to prevention, treatment initiation (especially in EDs), and harm reduction resources, treating substance use as a health issue.<br /><br />Together, ORN and MATTERS demonstrate a comprehensive, evidence-based approach leveraging technology, peer support, and cross-sector partnerships to improve access, sustain treatment engagement, and save lives amid the ongoing opioid epidemic.

Keywords

Opioid Response Network

Medication Assisted Treatment

MATTERS program

opioid use disorder

telemedicine evaluations

harm reduction

naloxone distribution

buprenorphine prescriptions

opioid epidemic

peer support