Addiction Collaboration

By Erin O'Donnell, Staff Writer 

A new Center for Behavioral Health Sciences opened at Cleveland State University in an effort to address the opioid crisis and prevent the further spread of addiction ‘by bringing together expertise in social work, psychology, public health, education, and urban policy.’ The Center will focus on connections between mental illness and addiction and will work with community partners to share practices. St. Vincent Charity Medical Center has partnered up to develop the center’s vision and priorities. In emails this morning with a couple of regional payers, including Anthem in Ohio, we found interest in collaboration: ‘Would like to see how collectively we can support this, perhaps even a multi-payer collaboration, and use what’s found to get people into the more effective treatment programs—we’re still in a limbo period where we have an idea how to treat but do a poor job transitioning’