New curriculum aims to address substance use disorders in medical education

Typically, medical students receive only a few lectures on substance addiction over their four years of study. The new curriculum will integrate substance use disorder education into the general medical school curriculum. It will focus on training 720 individuals, including medical students, trainees, and faculty, in substance use disorder care competencies over the three years of the grant. It will also address biases and discriminatory, stereotypical ideas about who do and do not use substances and need treatment.

The title of the grant is "UCR SOM Promoting Access to Treatment and Health Equity (PATH) for Substance Use Care." The PATH curriculum includes goals to build medical student and faculty competencies in treating substance use disorder as a disease, like any other chronic condition. It aims to increase access to evidence-based substance use disorder screening and services and leverage regional healthcare partnerships to educate and retain a diverse physician workforce.

"It's why SAMHSA put out a call for proposals for an integrated approach to substance use treatment in medical schools from the first year all the way through residency, rather than have it be a module where students learn a little about substance addiction and then leave medical school without knowing how to treat patients with substance use disorder," she said. "Addiction cuts across many of our communities. In pediatrics, geriatrics, LGBTQ, and women's health, we will include teaching on the diverse contexts and experiences of addictions. In the Inland Empire, where we have a sizeable unhoused population vulnerable to addictions, we are in dire need of physicians who are trained and ready to treat such patients."

Source:

University of California - Riverside