Addiction Medicine Fellowship - The Rural and Underserved Intervention and Substance Use Education (RISE) project will provide sustainable substance use prevention and treatment services and training in a 4-county area of Georgia that is severely underserved. All four are designated as health professional shortage areas (HPSA) for primary care and mental health care, with high rates of fatal drug overdoses, fatal opioid-related overdoses, drug-related emergency rooms visits, and opioid-related emergency room visits when compared to the state. In addition they have high rates of co-occurring facilitators like unemployment and poverty. Augusta University’s Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior (DPHB) will partner with 2 organizations to establish four new clinical training sites, including in rural areas, to train fellows in addiction medicine. New partnerships include: • Medical Associates Plus: A federally qualified health center (FQHC), with clinic locations across East Central Georgia. 3 of their clinic locations (2 in rural areas) will serve as clinical training sites. • Oconee Valley Healthcare: An FQHC with clinic locations across Middle Georgia. 1 of their clinic locations in a rural area will serve as a clinical training site. In addition, fellows will continue to rotate at our three existing clinical rotation sites through partnerships with: • Wellstar Medical College of Georgia Health Medical Center: Hospital-based inpatient service and an intensive outpatient program for subacute patients needing a level of treatment that does not require hospitalization but cannot be sufficiently addressed with ambulatory services. • Charlie Norwood Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center: Two hospital-based settings serving veterans with PTSD, depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and SUD. • Hope House: A community-based, residential treatment facility for women with SUD/OUD and their children, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. DPHB faculty will work collaboratively with these sites to: (1) increase the number of addiction medicine sub-specialists trained to practice in medically underserved community-based settings, including rural areas, that integrate primary care with mental health and SUD prevention and treatment services; (2) increase fellows’ knowledge and ability to assist their patients with referrals to navigate the legal and social systems related to patients’ clinical needs or care; and (3) increase awareness of addiction medicine as a sub-specialty and reduce provider stigma to increase the number of physicians interested in pursuing careers in addiction medicine and addiction psychiatry through the provision of clinical rotations that expose medical residents to practice in these specialties and through education and consultation. RISE will expand an addiction medicine fellowship that is sustainable beyond the grant period by using existing infrastructure, identifying community-based training sites that have potential to support fellow stipends in the future, and expanding services that are financially viable through billing and reimbursement.
