Telehealth & Substance Use Disorders: What You Need to Know
- Basics of telehealth: The do’s & don’ts
- When telehealth is not appropriate
- Virtual privacy concerns
- What to tell your clients before starting
- Informed consent: Why it’s different for telehealth
The Science Behind Substance Use Disorders
- Biopsychosocial aspects of substance abuse
- The role of trauma & attachment
- Compromised immune systems
- Using while isolated: The most dangerous substances
- Alcohol
- Heroin
- Fentanyl
- Meth
Telehealth Screening & Assessment: How Do You Know if a Client is Using?
- Assessment when you can’t see or smell
- Distance drug screening: Reduce potential harm
- How to ask sensitive intake questions
- Screening tools you can use at a distance
Remote Treatment Planning & Delivery
- Client-reported withdrawal screenings
- Making level of care decisions remotely
- Withdrawal management alone is not treatment
- Withdrawal management protocols & support through telehealth
- Inpatient or outpatient treatment?
- Medication-assisted treatment
Motivational Interviewing
- Stages of change
- Key strategies of motivational interviewing
- Relapse prevention strategies
- What to do when clients relapse
Distance Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions
- Apply the A-B-C model to substance abuse
- Recognize triggers to use via telehealth
- Foster coping skills
- Deconstruct negative schemas
Strategies for Group Telehealth
- Tailor interventions for virtual groups
- Barriers to treatment
- Getting people to talk
- Referring to virtual 12-step groups
More Strategies to Improve Client Engagement & Get Treatment Buy-In
- Showing empathy without nonverbal cues
- Case management: Link the client to resources
- Medication-assisted treatment
Special Clinical Situations
- Pregnancy: Stigma & other challenges
- Parents of young children
- Vicarious trauma with a high-stress population
- Limitations of the research & potential risks

