Tips for Talking about Opioids and Pain with Patients

Health care providers often request guidance on how to have conversations with patients about opioids, pain treatment, addiction and other topics that may be challenging. In this collection, we have gathered materials that provide support to providers as they have these difficult conversations. Continue reading

What Happens When You Flip the Script?

This 4 minute video from Minnesota’s Flip the Script campaign features interviews with a physician and patient about how the decision to change the patient’s opioid prescription improved the patient’s quality of life and the provider’s relationship to his patients and his practice. Continue reading

Flip the Script: Discussion Guide for Non-Prescribers

A 4 page guide for non-prescribers about having difficult conversations with patients about pain management and opioids from Minnesota’s Flip the Script campaign. This guide provides information about the risks of long-term opioid therapy and provides information about understanding acute, post-acute and chronic pain. The guide provides talking points and specific language health care providers can use when talking to their patients and preparing patients to continue the discussion with their prescribing provider.

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Flip the Script: Discussion Guide

This 4 page guide from Minnesota’s Flip the Script campaign centers on health care providers conducting difficult conversations with patients around opioids. This guide provides information about the risks of long-term opioid therapy and provides information about understanding acute, post-acute and chronic pain. It also outlines talking points and specific language health care providers can use when talking to their patients.

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Flip the Script: Difficult Conversations

This 4 page guide from Minnesota’s Flip the Script campaign centers on health care providers and conducting difficult conversations with patients around opioids. The guide covers topics such as tapering opioid dose, pain relief, emerging behavioral health conditions, and concerns about the addiction risk of using opioids and includes sample language providers can use when talking to patients. Continue reading

Spotlight: Project ECHO

A brief overview of the Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) initiative which connects clinical specialty providers such as addiction medicine experts with primary care providers through multi-point video conferencing technology. The model uses case-based learning where the speciallists combine brief lectures on clinical topics with case presentations and work with the primary care providers to enhance their knowledge and ability to treat conditions such as opioid use disorder. Project ECHO began in 2003 in New Mexico but now operates throughout the United States and internationally. This report is part of the Addiction Policy Forum’s Spotlight series which highlights innovative programs to address the opioid crisis.

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Providers Clinical Support System

The Providers Clinical Support System (PCCS) is a program of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and associated healthcare organizations that provides training and clinical mentoring to primary care providers to help them treat opioid use disorder and manage chronic pain in their practices.

Funding Source:  Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration