A Promising New Program Treats Co-Occurring Mental Health and Opioid Use Disorders
<p>K<a href="https://www.rand.org/about/people/w/watkins_katherine_e.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">atherine Watkins</a> still thinks about the women she met years ago as a young psychiatrist working at a residential treatment center. They were fighting drug addictions — but they were also struggling with serious mental health problems at the same time. They were some of the sickest patients she had ever met.</p>
<p>Watkins is now a senior physician policy researcher at RAND. She’s leading <a href="https://www.rand.org/health-care/projects/claro.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">an effort in New Mexico</a> to transform the care of people like those women. If it’s successful — and the early numbers look promising — it will provide a new model for helping patients who otherwise might disappear into cracks in the American health care system.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/articles/2023/a-promising-new-program-treats-co-occurring-mental-health.html"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>