Sowing Seeds of Change: Promising Early Results from California’s Medication Assisted Treatment Program

Health EquityMental Health and SUDOpioid Use DisorderProgram Design ImplementationStakeholder Engagement and Facilitation

May 2

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Early results from California’s Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Expansion Project demonstrate that individuals who accessed treatment for opioid use disorder from 2020 to 2022 experienced a 46% reduction in homelessness, a 40% increase in employment, and decreased drug use. These promising results are from survey data from the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), a project Aurrera Health Group has been supporting on behalf of the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) since 2019.Aurrera Health Group was proud to present these and other outcomes from California’s MAT Expansion Project at the national RX Summit in Atlanta, GA, in April 2023. We also shared the results in this poster: Sowing Seeds of Change: Early Results from California’s Medication Assisted Treatment Expansion Project.

Background

California’s MAT Expansion Project was created through the State Opioid Response (SOR) grant program. The SOR grant program, which is administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) aims to address the opioid overdose crisis by supporting the continuum of prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support services for opioid use disorder (OUD). Aurrera Health Group supports DHCS’s SOR-funded activities, including the MAT Expansion project.Through the MAT Expansion project, DHCS funded seven programs providing direct treatment services to patients. These programs were:

These programs include clinic sites dispersed across the state of California, ranging from rural to urban, and focused on providing treatment and recovery services to patients. Clinic sites are required to conduct the GPRA survey with clients utilizing SOR funding for treatment and recovery services. The survey consists of client-level data that includes outcome measures such as substance use, mental and physical health, living conditions, employment status, and recent experience of physical harm. The data is used to evaluate program success. As a part of our support to DHCS for this work, Aurrera Health Group also provides resources, technical assistance and training to all sites collecting GPRA surveys.

Findings

This study used data from the GPRA survey to understand how the MAT Expansion project impacted individuals from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2022. Surveys were conducted with individuals accessing treatment and recovery services at intake, a six-month follow-up, and discharge. We analyzed the GPRA survey results from 157 clinic sites across California that served clients with SOR funding. Overall, participants reported very positive outcomes in just six months:

Self-rated quality of life scores increased by 24%, from ‘fair or poor’ to ‘good, very good or excellent.’
A 46% reduction in participants reporting being unhoused. Participants reported a 40% increase in employment, and those marking ‘unemployed, not looking’ decreased by 29%.
A 58% decrease in participants reporting using drugs 20 to 30 days in the last month, and a 61% increase in participants reporting using no drugs in the last month.

These results demonstrate large gains for individuals in a short period after initiating treatment services.

Future Work

Preliminary data from the GPRA survey suggest that recovery and treatment services have been a valuable resource not only to help decrease drug use but to also improve quality of life. As California enters another year of SOR funding, it will build upon and expand access to services to reach more individuals with opioid use disorder. Since October 2022, 105 clinic sites were funded through SOR. The most recent round of SOR funding was announced in March, and another 57 sites were launched in April 2023. Through this expansion, California will continue to reduce barriers and increase access to MAT services throughout the state with a particular focus on areas currently without MAT services and outreach to communities of color and other previously under-served populations.