The Telehealth for Opioid Use Disorder Toolkit: Guidance to Support High-Quality Care, released in October 2021, focuses on buprenorphine (typically formulated as buprenorphine/naloxone, hereafter termed buprenorphine) and adjunctive psychotherapy treatment options for OUD and does not cover methadone treatment or XR-naltrexone.
The primary goal of this toolkit is to provide clinically relevant information to support high-quality delivery of outpatient OUD care via telehealth, while reducing barriers to starting and maintaining both medication and psychosocial treatments.
This toolkit is intended for clinicians, administrators and policymakers who are involved in delivering, managing and considering telehealth for OUD care. Specific tools (e.g. flowchart, checklist, sample note) are included for clinicians; these tools should be used in combination with existing tools and guidance on general OUD treatment (e.g. induction and maintenance, dosing, etc.). The goal is to help clinicians deliver high-quality tele-OUD care beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
This toolkit was created by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Providers Clinical Support System (PCSS).