Episode 1: An Epidemic Within a Pandemic (Kelly Clark and Daniel Sledge)

The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded and intensified the barriers many people experience when trying to access treatment and harm reduction services for substance use disorders due to physical distancing protocols and fear of infection. However, the pandemic has also created an environment in which clinicians have been given more flexibility in providing care to patients. During this episode, Kelly Clark, an addiction medicine expert, and Daniel Sledge, a first responder, will discuss how providing care to patients, access to treatment, and caring for those in urgent need of assistance has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kelly and Daniel share experience-based advice on the tools, policies, and multi-sector collaboration needed to combat the U.S. opioid crisis. They discuss the barriers and opportunities at the individual, first-responder, clinician, and systems level while shedding insight into changes in the national response, resources, and tools since the onset of the pandemic. 

Listen for more on how treatment providers evaluate the response to the opioid epidemic within the COVID-19 pandemic.