A first person story about opioid user Ken whose workplace injury led to a four year addiction to pain killers. Through Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), Ken is on the road to recovery.
This resource is a first person story about an individual, Bill, who took prescription opioids for severe lower back pain and unintentionally overdosed when his physician switched his medication from hydrocodone to methadone to address tolerance. Bill didn’t realize methadone accumulates slowly and remains in the
This website presents the Six Building Blocks program for primary care teams who want to improve their practice’s management of patients on long term opioid therapy for chronic pain. It defines the Six Building Blocks and provides tools and resources for improving patient care as well as implementation guidance for the program.
One strategy for improving safe opioid prescribing is to have the patient and the health care provider enter into a prescription pain medication agreement. This sample agreement from SAMHSA can be used as is or adapted as needed.
This one page document gives patients information about what to do if their pain medication is not working.
A one page document for patients and caregivers with information about the risks of prescription medications for children and guidance for how to safely store medications in the home.
This one page document for patients and caregivers provides information on how to safely dispose of unused prescription drug medications including information about medication “take back” programs and an alternative strategy if such a program is not available.
This one page document explains to patients the risks of opioid pain medications and provides tips for talking to health care providers about opioids and pain management.
This one page document explains prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) to patients with answers to questions about what are PDMPs, why are they used, and how is patient privacy protected.
This resource provides a space for patients to record information about the medications they take including the dose, how often they take the medication, the reason for the medication, and the prescriber’s name. This information can be shared with health care providers and can be used to prevent patients taking