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Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and the Medical Society of Virginia announced a new resource line Thursday to support adults struggling with substance use disorders.
The Adult Psychiatric Access Line, dubbed APAL, is a resource for providers to better cater to the needs of their patients.
Primary care providers who connect with the program will be directed to regional hub operators to provide intake information for patients battling addiction, to help them access other resources and mental health professionals or social workers that specialize in addiction.
Deltaville-area doctor Sterling Ransone said it’s a needed resource for primary care physicians statewide and will allow them to offer better care to their patients..
“The problem we get is that we don’t have the psychiatric and behavioral health resources in our office or right next door,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to have some backup.”
DBHS Commissioner Nelson Smith explained that Virginia has a shortage of mental healthcare workers. This means that potential patients can sometimes struggle to navigate finding a therapist who can help them talk through solutions or a psychiatrist who can prescribe medications for those who need it. People may also wait months to schedule appointments, due to these challenges.
Smith said primary care providers like Ransone can be a first point of help in many cases because patients may have already established trust with their PCP.
“People might go in for a sprained ankle and end up divulging more,” he said.
Though PCPs have training across multiple types of care, the Adult Psychiatric Access Line can help them connect patients with substance disorders to other specialists. PCPs can also receive additional educational support to better be able to prescribe medications when that form of therapy is needed to treat addiction disease.
Ransone recalled how one of his patients was a single mother coping with addiction while juggling work and motherhood. She used to have to wake up very early to drive more than an hour in order to receive the methadone that she needed.
APAL will allow more local doctors to be able and comfortable with prescribing medications like methadone so patients like his wouldn’t have to travel as far in their daily lives for treatment.
Meeting patients where they are more often can prevent some people from needing to go to the emergency room and ultimately prevent addiction-related deaths, Smith said. In 2022, there were over 22,000 ER visits stemming from substance use disorders and over 2,400 such deaths, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
Smith pointed to how the resource hub launch stems from the Right Help Right Now initiative that Gov. Glenn Youngkin has spearheaded. Virginia is in the second year of Youngkin’s three-year plan, which entails budget proposals from him and legislative actions by state lawmakers.
A national survey from this year found that 38% of Americans think mental health isn’t adequately treated, but Virginia is working to change that and model solutions.
About 38% of Americans think mental health isn’t adequately treated. Va.’s working to change that.
Ransone also noted a synergy between federal and state government when it comes to helping out. Bipartisan legislation from 2021 called the Mainlining Addiction Treatment Act, eliminated a waiver requirement that had prevented some physicians from being able to prescribe a type of opioid addiction treatment. This, in part, helps make APAL possible in Virginia for doctors like him.
Smith pointed to the building blocks the Medical Society of Virginia already had in place that paved the way for APAL. The new program for adults is modeled after the society’s state and federally-funded Virginia Mental Health Access Program, which PCPs can use to support pediatric patients.
And while APAL is focused specifically on substance use disorders for now, Nelson and MSV CEO Melina Davis said there are plans to expand it in the future.
Ransone said he’s already thinking about how the program may benefit his patients and potential future patients who struggle with things like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or depression and anxiety.
“We decided to start with substance abuse and then eventually we’ll expand into (more) mental health care,” Davis said.
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