The Rural Health and Substance Use Clinical Support (RHeSUS) Program offers educational programming including DATA Waiver Training, Substance Use Disorder Management Boot Camps, RHeSUS ECHO Lunch and Learn tele-education Series, Addiction Consultation Provider Hotline, RHeSUS Office Hours, educational webinars, and more, targeting health care providers and their teams in the project’s rural catchment area.

Substance use and related harms in the U.S. and in Wisconsin have increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most (70%) rural Wisconsin counties lack an opioid treatment program, or a provider licensed to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid addiction. Additionally, the number of people served by AODA treatment services in Wisconsin has declined dramatically, even though substance use and impacts have been increasing, by 75% since the first quarter of 2019, likely due to COVID related impact on services.

Program Goals include:
 

• Increase the number of health care providers who actively prescribe evidence-based pharmacotherapies for use disorders
• Improve access to evidence-based medical care and peer recovery support for rural residents struggling with addiction
• Decrease opioid overdose rates

Funding for RHeSUS was provided by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health from the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP).

 

RHeSUS Office Hours:

• A forum available for providers to discuss issues related to the management of patients with substance use disorders in the general medical setting. Dr. Randy Brown will be available to provide clinical support on questions such as managing patients with at-risk alcohol use and use disorder, prescription controlled substance issues, OUD/SUD management, and more. Questions can be on broader management topics or specific to a patient in your care.
• Details:
  • Every third Tuesday of the month from 12:00pm -1:00 pm
  • Join Zoom Meeting here
  • For additional questions, contact RHeSUS Program Director Jill Lindwall or Randall Brown, MD, PhD, DFASAM: randy.brown@fammed.wisc.edu
  • RHeSUS Office Hours Flier
  • Target Audience: All providers treating and/or managing patients with substance use disorders in the rural In-Patient, Emergency Department, and General Medical Settings

News Releases:

• 'The need is as great as it's ever been': New program to expand substance abuse treatment in rural Wisconsin (WKOW)
• New program to expand access to substance abuse treatment in rural WI (WisPolitics)
• UW, WHA partner to expand substance abuse treatment in rural communities (Channel 3000)

Partners

• 

  PROTEA - University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, UW School of Medicine and Public Health, Program for Research, Outreach, Therapeutics, and Education in the Addictions (PROTEA)
  
  For more information or questions, contact Kathleen Maher, PROTEA Outreach Specialist.
   

• 

  Wisconsin Voices for Recovery's mission is to unite people in and seeking recovery, their families, helping professionals, and our allies.

Stay Connected

RHeSUS Network: COMING SOON! – A professional online community engagement platform for all-in-one access to resources, networking, and more.

Contact: For more information or questions, please contact Jill Lindwall, WHA Quality Director and RHeSUS Program Director.