New toolkit aims to help rural organizations create medication-assisted therapy programs for opioid misuse

A new toolkit from the Rural Health Information Hub aims to help rural communities and organizations develop, implement, evaluate and sustain Medication for Opioid Use Disorder programs. MOUD programs, sometimes called Medication-Assisted Therapy, are the gold-standard for treating OUD, but they're harder to find in rural areas, often because there's not enough money, not enough qualified prescribers, or because of community worries that drug treatment centers might attract more crime.

The toolkit has seven detailed modules that provide an overview of MOUD and the challenges rural communities face; identify different models for rural MOUD programs, along with promising examples; and dig into how organizations can implement, sustainably fund, evaluate, and get the word out about their own program.

Target audiences for the toolkit are rural organizations including: healthcare providers, non-profit organizations, faith-based organizations, businesses, and community-based organizations. Click here for more information.