County Touchpoints in Access to MAT for Justice-Involved Populations
The County Touchpoints in Access to MAT for Justice-Involved Populations project is focused on outreach, education, and training about opioid addiction and treatment in county criminal justice and human service systems. Six groups of stakeholders are targeted for education - particular to the roles they play in supporting a client on MAT - to continue the medication, and to change policies and practices to support access to MAT and its use for a clinically appropriate duration.
Adult courts, youth/dependency courts, public defenders, district attorneys, probation, and child welfare workers in every county are invited to a series of regional training sessions that focus first on agency leadership and then on managers/supervisors and line staff. The sessions include didactic training on OUD and its treatment, MAT medications, the rational for treating addiction in justice settings, and systems for paying for addiction treatment. They also include interactive sessions for each stakeholder group in which participants consider current practices in light of the best practices articulated by their respective professional organizations. Customized workbooks with case studies and discussion questions are used for each stakeholder group, and the interactive sessions are guided by a senior, well-respected and recently retired "Stakeholder Champion" from that field. The project is managed by Health Management Associates (HMA) in partnership with California Health Policies Strategies LLC.
Additionally, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has recently started to develop a statewide MAT program. In addition to increasing access to MAT, there will be a focus on two periods: when incarcerated individuals are transferred from jails to prisons, and when incarcerated individuals transition from prisons back into the community. CDCR has also started to train all parole agents on the administration of Naloxone.