PSY - 798 Substance Abuse Unit Team (SUIT)

A large focus of the Rush Substance Abuse Intervention Team (SUIT) Elective is designed for students to be exposed to the emergency department or inpatient hospital. Our treatments in the outpatient setting will also help learners gain an understanding of the breadth of treatment that is available. We will bring in materials from the PCSS buprenorphine x-waiver training course in order to make sure all learners who rotate with us have a knowledge of how medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorders affects and could benefit their patients. Goals of this course include: (1) Describe the role of outpatient addiction medicine treatment including the role of opioid replacement treatment for treatment of opioid use disorders, the role of psychosocial and dual diagnosis treatments, and the barriers to starting the medication and linking with treatment; (2) Describe the general approach to patients poisoned by drugs of abuse including recognition of basic toxidromes, the evaluation and treatment of overdoses and toxicities related to drugs of abuse, and the treatment of opioid and alcohol withdrawal syndromes in the inpatient, outpatient, and emergency department setting; (3) Describe the role of harm reduction in treating addiction, including the prescription of the opioid overdose antidote naloxone; (4) Apply skills in application motivational interviewing and the stages of change model to patients with substance use disorders. Offered: Fall, Spring, & Summer. Retake Counts for Credit: No. Pass/No Pass Grading Allowed: No. Credit(s): 2-4