EPIC is excited to announce a new team member, Ian Murphy. Ian earned his MPH in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh. He will handle Needs Portal training and technical assistance.

We are excited to have Ian on the team!

EPIC is excited to announce that our data dashboard is ready! The data dashboard gives you information on EPIC cases in a way that’s easy to understand. You can find the Dashboard under the “Evaluation” menu or click here.

Hover your cursor over the graphs to get the exact data. Information can be separated by county. To only see Pickaway data, please click on the light blue bar graph in the center of the Dashboard. To just see Fairfield data, please click on the dark blue bar graph in the center of the Dashboard.

We will continue to add information to the Dashboard so you can keep track of the cases and timelines.

For more information, please refer to these two documents. The “Getting Started” document will help you start to navigate the Dashboard. The “Explaining the Numbers” document will help you better understand the data on the dashboard.

The EPIC team is excited for you to see the progress that we are making!

Only 2.4% of adolescents in treatment for heroin addiction receive Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) compared to 26.3% of adults. This is concerning because substance use disorders often begin in adolescence and young adulthood. The best MAT for young people, however, may be different than for adults. Many agencies including the American Academy of Pediatrics support the use of MAT for youth. One study found that among youth, extended MAT (56 days) was more effective in preventing relapse than shorter treatment models (28 days). When it comes to medications for youth populations, prior research recommends buprenorphine/naloxone, with methadone as an alternative. Buprenorphine/naloxone is approved for opioid use disorders at age 16 in the U.S., and methadone can be prescribed for youth under the age of 18 if the patient was unsuccessful on two previous withdrawal attempts and has written consent from a parent. Psychosocial treatments are recommended for youth with opioid use disorders, either in outpatient detox or in residential settings. MAT in combination with psychosocial therapies has been shown to be more effective compared to MAT alone, however, researchers point out that it is generally more challenging to retain youth in treatment compared to adults.

Chang, D. C., Klimas, J., Wood, E., & Fairbairn, N. (July 20, 2017). Medication-assisted treatment for youth with opioid use disorder: Current dilemmas and remaining questions. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 44, 2, 143-146.

A team of researchers investigated which individuals were more likely to graduate from an Indiana Drug Court. First, individuals who were employed or were students were 2.5 times more likely to graduate compared to those who were unemployed or not in school. Second, individuals who had a drug court violation within the first 30 days were 50% less likely to graduate.

Drug of choice was also critical for graduation. Participants who primarily used opiates were 80% less likely to graduate compared to individuals whose primary drug was not an opiate. As a result, the researchers recommended that individuals with opiate use disorders use Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) in conjunction with drug courts. Further, because MAT can be cost prohibitive, it is also recommended that drug courts coordinate participants’ care with treatment agencies.

Gallagher, J. R., Wahler, E. A., Lefebvre, E., Paiano, T., Carlton, J., & Woodward, M. J. (January 01, 2018). Improving Graduation Rates in Drug Court Through Employment and Schooling Opportunities and Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT). Journal of Social Service Research, 44, 3, 343-349.