Effort to Offer Treatment for Addiction in California's Emergency Departments
The work Dr. Aimee Moulin is doing to improve the way addiction is treated in emergency departments (EDs) in California hospitals was highlighted in an article in Vox this month. Dr. Moulin, a CHPR Core Faculty member and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at UC Davis, would like to see addiction treated as the medical condition current understanding of this affliction affecting millions of Americans indicates it is. The Vox article describes both obstacles to bringing addiction treatment into the medical mainstream--like the stigma toward drug use, the extra training required for health providers, the paucity of facilities for follow-up care and the out-of-pocket costs for the latter--and the growing body of evidence supporting an ED approach. California is one of several states leading the effort to offer treatment for addiction in EDs, a move meant to treat addiction more like other chronic conditions (such as heart disease or diabetes) are treated. Dr. Moulin is a local leader in this effort.
