The article, “Evaluation of the New England Office Based Addiction Treatment ECHO: A Tool for Strengthening the Addiction Workforce,” has been published in SAj.
In this commentary, the authors state that reducing substance-related morbidity requires an educated and well-supported workforce. The New England Office Based Addiction Treatment Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (NE OBAT ECHO) began in 2019 to support community-based addiction care teams through virtual mentoring and case-based learning. They sought to characterize the program’s impact on the knowledge and attitudes of NE OBAT ECHO participants.
In the AUTHORS’ OWN WORDS, they relate the importance of their work:
“To effectively care for patients with OUD, better training, including ongoing education, is needed for multidisciplinary care teams. The field of addiction medicine evolves rapidly as new regulations, medications, and protocols are introduced. The Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) Model is a telementoring model shown to increase the capacity of care teams to manage chronic health conditions, including OUD.”
“We found that the NE OBAT ECHO, a tele-mentoring program linking community-based healthcare professionals to experts in addiction medicine, improved participants’ overall attitudes toward working with patients with SUD. In the face of an undereducated workforce with high rates of burnout, this is likely a valuable model for expanding and sustaining the SUD workforce.”