Opioids – Arkansans are dying – What can we do?

By Kelly Gardner

UAMS is fighting the epidemic on several fronts, and one major effort includes giving health care providers across the state access to UAMS expertise and resources, through programs like AR-IMPACT, MATRIARC and the Center for Health Literacy.

Need to make a referral?

The Center for Addiction Services and Treatment in the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute provides medication-assisted treatment services for opioid use disorder. For appointments, call 501-526-8400.

The Women’s Mental Health Program treats pregnant women with opioid use disorder. For appointments, call 501-526-8201.


AR-IMPACT – Program offers pain management education, case consults

UAMS has launched a free weekly education and consultation service for health care providers statewide.

Arkansas Improving Multidisciplinary Pain Care Treatment (AR-IMPACT) is a live streaming online video conferencing service staffed by a multidisciplinary team from UAMS, including a pain physician, addiction psychiatrist, psychologist, two pharmacists and a physical therapist.

Each conference will include a 20-minute presentation on an opioid-related topic and a question-and-answer session. Participants are encouraged to present patient cases for individualized feedback about approaches to treatment.

Physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, pharmacists and other health care providers are welcome to use the service. Physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners and pharmacists will be able to earn continuing medical education credits.

“We want to partner with health care providers across the state for an exchange of information with the goal of improving pain management in Arkansas and the lives of these patients,” said G. Richard Smith, M.D., a professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the UAMS College of Medicine who is spearheading the project. “UAMS is an academic setting where we stay abreast of the latest research and treatments, but these physicians across the state are the true front lines. They are seeing this in their clinics every day. It’s time we join forces.”

Topics will include how to taper off opioids, alternatives to opioids for pain management, when physical therapy is appropriate, when to recommend a nerve block or an epidural and more. Smith said participant interest will guide future topic choices.

Funding for AR-IMPACT’s first year has been provided by $104,000 from Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield and $49,000 from the office of the Arkansas drug director.

Visit the AR-IMPACT website at ARIMPACT.UAMS.edu to sign up and find information about continuing medical education credits.


MATRIARC – Connect with experts for help treating opioid use disorder

UAMS and the Arkansas Department of Human Services have launched a free one-on-one consultation service for health care providers who are treating patients with opioid use disorder.

These providers can call the Medication-Assisted Treatment Recovery Initiative for Arkansas Rural Communities (MATRIARC) hotline for advice on a range of topics – anything from determining dosages of maintenance drugs like buprenorphine/naloxone (Suboxone) to connecting patients with support services to handling billing.

“There are few people in the state who are providing medication-assisted treatment, so many of our patients drive hours for treatment and others never seek treatment because of these barriers to care,” said Michael Mancino, M.D., a psychiatrist, director of the UAMS Center for Addiction Services in the Psychiatric Research Institute and leader behind MATRIARC.

“We think helping community providers gain the knowledge and confidence to treat these patients close to home will be an important step in addressing the deadly opioid epidemic in Arkansas.”

To connect with the service, call 1-833-872-7404 or 501-526-8459.


Center for Health Literacy – Services foster clear communication with patients

When the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UAMS overhauled its opioid-prescribing practices, they called on the UAMS Center for Health Literacy for help.

The research shows that patients recover from surgery better when they take fewer opioids. The department set a goal to standardize and reduce its opioid prescriptions. They wrote new protocols and educated their team members.

“However, we knew that many patients were going to still expect big opioid prescriptions after a surgery,” said Simon Mears, M.D., an orthopaedic surgeon who helped lead the effort. “We knew that if we were going to be successful, patient education would be key.”

The Center for Health Literacy created documents to facilitate these conversations, including clear, easy-to-read bulleted lists and charts with what to expect before and after surgery.

“We created the documents, evaluated them for readability and field tested them with real patients,” said Alison Caballero, the center’s director of programs and services. “We use plain language best practices to create and evaluate our materials, and our team members have assessed and edited thousands of pages of health information. We know what helps you communicate clearly with patients.”

The Center for Health Literacy provides these services and others to entities on and off the UAMS campus.

Examples of services include assessing and editing existing health-related content for readability and understanding, and translating documents into Spanish while retaining plain language features. They can do on-site assessments of clinics’ policies and practices and provide consultation and training for staff on communicating clearly with patients. They create new patient education materials and tools to help engage patients, such as programming to help them get the most out of their doctor visits.

For more information, visit HealthLiteracy.UAMS.edu or PlainPages.org, call 501-686-2595 or email healthliteracy@UAMS.edu.