Congratulations to RARC Researcher, Dr. Cynthia Santos, on receiving a new SAMSHA award for Emergency Department Alternatives to Opioids Program:

Emergency Department Alternatives to Opioids: Incorporating Innovative and
Multidisciplinary Strategies to Enhance Training and Utilization of Pharmacological Options
to Opioids and Alternative Pain Management Techniques

Program: Emergency Department Alternatives to Opioids Program
Grant Award Number: TI086051-01
FY 2023 Funding: $499,996
Project Period: 2023/09/30 – 2026/08/31

The award consists of providing person-centered treatment approaches for painful conditions that are frequently treated at the Emergency Department of University Hospital. They plan to provide education on breathing exercises/meditation, visual therapy using virtual reality headwear, and music therapy using headphones with options that reflect a diverse range of cultures and languages at the bedside of patients in the emergency department for painful conditions.

Project Summary
The program aims to develop and implement person-centered treatment approaches for painful
conditions frequently treated at the Emergency Department (ED) of University Hospital. The
population of focus will be patients from the University Hospital ED with substance use disorder,
particularly Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), who have high rates of intravenous drug use, and are
overwhelmingly resource limited. The population lives in Newark NJ or the surrounding
communities hence it is an urban, predominantly African-American population. The target number
of people to be served annually is at least 800 and throughout the lifetime of the 3-year project is at
least 2,400; these estimates are based on previous targets for our Emergency Department Peer
Navigator (EDPN) program. Moving forward, the program will utilize data to develop informed training programs and tailor existing strategies to ensure an understanding of pain management responses and help-seeking behaviors across different cultures and mental health backgrounds to address provider biases related to behavioral health, cultural, and SDOH disparities. Members will train both ED and other medical/surgical providers on how to incorporate Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) during treatment and prescribe buprenorphine in order to identify people who are in need of treatment for pain and OUD. Across the 3-year grant period, approximately 430 medical/surgical trainees (residents, NP and PA students) and 2,400 patients will benefit from specialty-focused strategies on pain management and MOUD. They will develop strategies to provide pharmacological and nonpharmacological alternatives to opioids using innovative and multidisciplinary strategies that can be initiated in the ED setting. Currently, our pain guidelines is a syndrome-based approach tailored to pain etiology, and utilizes over 30 different nonopioid medications for pain relief.