Facilitating Best Practices in Buprenorphine/Naloxone Initiation in Provincial Correctional Facilities through the Development of Tools for Health Care Staff

 

PI and project team: Kouyoumdjian, F., Regenstreif, L., Kiefer, L., Irvin, C., & Beaulieu, E.

This project aims to define best practices for buprenorphine/naloxone (Suboxone) treatment initiation in provincial correctional facilities and develop tools to support the uptake of best practices by health care professionals. To define best practices, we will conduct an environmental scan of policies and procedures for buprenorphine/naloxone initiation in correctional facilities in Ontario and in other jurisdictions and review the literature regarding best practices for Buprenorphine/naloxone initiation in prison settings in North America. To support the uptake of best practices by health care providers, we have developed user-friendly algorithms to facilitate treatment. We have worked with our advisory group consisting of health care providers and designers to format knowledge products for use. To disseminate the knowledge products, we will work with the Ministry of the Solicitor General to distribute these materials to health care providers across provincial correctional facilities. These materials will also be shared with colleagues in other jurisdictions in Canada. We will collect data on process indicators to evaluate our knowledge dissemination, and feedback on the knowledge products themselves to improve knowledge products, and to identify opportunities to further improve treatment quality and access. These tools have the potential to reduce harms in people who experience imprisonment and could lessen the burden of opioid overdose crisis in Ontario. Please find below the Research Brief summarizing the results of the study below. To access the full paper, please visit the following link: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/11/e048944.full