Telehealth for Addiction Treatment During COVID-19 - Webinar | RTI

The introduction of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has had a profound impact on health and behavioral health care delivery due to social distancing requirements. In response to the pandemic, many addiction treatment providers have been quick to embrace telehealth for their clients. While there is a growing body of evidence for telehealth in many disciplines, the evidence for addiction treatment is limited. The need to accelerate provision of addiction treatment services through telehealth presents unique challenges to policy makers and providers, including operational issues such as access and reimbursement and therapeutic issues such as confidentiality and psychological safety.

In this webinar, we review telehealth policy changes due to COVID-19 and the implications for provision of addiction treatment. We will review challenges specific to addiction telehealth treatment and offer specific recommendations for policy makers, providers and individuals to support their journey in recovery.

Upon completion of this webinar about addiction treatment during COVID-19, attendees will be able to:

• Understand recent telehealth policy changes due to COVID-19
• Recognize specific challenges of using telehealth in addiction treatment
• Consider how telehealth can best be integrated into addiction treatment based on the latest policy changes and implement recommendations to support recovery

Saira Haque, PhD, MHSA, FAMIA
Virtual Care Portfolio Leader
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Dr. Saira Haque oversees RTI’s work in telehealth. Her background includes a variety of consulting, research and operations positions for provider organizations and health plans.  She has led many complex projects including telehealth tool development, mixed-methods evaluations, policy analysis, case study development, and workflow analysis. Her areas of interest include telehealth, use of technology to address substance use disorders, health information exchange, public and population health, and the intersection of technology and organizations.

Julie Seibert, PhD, MA, MPH
Director, Behavioral Health, Epidemiology and Treatment Research Program
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Dr. Julie H. Seibert focuses on the evaluation of publicly funded health and behavioral health services, including the development of quality measures to improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations. She has extensive experience with quality management and quality improvement, including managing statewide quality strategies, developing performance measures, and developing monitoring tools and data collection processes. Prior to joining RTI, Dr. Seibert worked for 20 years the in the public behavioral health system and held leadership roles in in policy, management, quality improvement and direct consumer care.

Lissette Saavedra, PhD
Research Psychologist
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Dr. Lissette M. Saavedra is a Senior Research Psychologist with more than 20 years of experience in mental health and lifespan developmental psychology research. Currently she serves as the Principal Investigator of a National Institute of Justice grant focused on delivery of telemental health services for trauma-exposed victims of crime. She also acts as a Co-Investigator of the National Institute of Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse funded Project Harmony, a virtual clinical trial that integrates data from over 50 clinical trials to better treat comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol/other drug use disorders.