Substance Use Treatment

Treatment of addiction AS primary care and obstetrical care

Managing complex, chronic diseases and building long-term, trusting relationships with patients is what family physicians do. In our clinic, treatment of addiction is integrated into primary care. All of our residents receive broad training in screening for, diagnosis, and management of substance use disorders. Residents train in medication and behavioral management including motivational interviewing and integrated behavioral health. All residents train in and manage buprenorphine and naltrexone for their primary patients. Patients requiring a higher level of care can be accommodated through our higher intensity provider sessions or partnerships with residential treatment sites.

Pregnancy or Parenting with Opiate Use Disorder (PROUD)

Our PrOUD clinic specifically addresses the needs of those patients who are PRegnant or Parenting with Opiate Use Disorder. In pregnancy, patients with use disorders often struggle to find informed, compassionate care between multiple specialists and can experience bias in uniquely damaging ways. Providing integrated obstetrical and addiction care within our clinic, or serving as a referral location for obstetric providers, we are able to integrate pediatric care for mother-baby dyad as well. This is a unique service in the Milwaukee area, made possible by the specific skill set of our experienced full-spectrum Family Medicine with Obstetrics (FMOB) physicians, in conjunction with in-clinic care coordination and social work. Our team serves these patients in the outpatient residency clinic, at Waukesha Memorial Hospital Birthing Center, and at Bethany Recovery Center. We prescribe Medications for Opiate Use Disorder (MOUD) and also provide inpatient care, delivery management, inpatient medication induction, peripartum pain control, patient advocacy and social work home visits, neonatal abstinence syndrome / neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NAS/NOWS) mitigation and management, county services or carceral system coordination, breastfeeding support, and integrated newborn/pediatric care.

Comprehensive addiction Training

In addition to clinical experiences, our core didactic curriculum includes regular Substance Use Disorder lectures and didactic sessions as well as interactive case conferences addressing immediate challenges in Substance Use Disorder care within our patient panel and community. All residents tour, and have the opportunity to work alongside, local organizations and facilities addressing Substance Use Disorders in our community as part of their Family and Community Medicine rotations.

We offer several options to expand training for those residents with a special interest in addiction. Our Addiction Medicine elective prepares residents to manage more complex patients receiving buprenorphine treatment. Resident will manage new intakes to understand how to guide patients to appropriate medications and levels of care. Residents taking elective rotations will  learn basic and advanced buprenorphine induction strategies and manage patients with more complex polysubstance use and co-occurring mental and physical health conditions. Residents will also expand their knowledge in treating tobacco and alcohol use disorders.  Our addiction major offers comprehensive training with 3 blocks of advanced addiction content. In addition to advanced buprenorphine training, residents will complete one block with our methadone opioid treatment program community partner and learn advanced skills in the management of alcohol, stimulant and tobacco use disorders. This includes training in treating addiction in special populations including adolescents and pregnant people and becoming familiar with various care settings including residential treatment through our partnership with Bethany Recovery Center. Graduates of our addiction major are well suited to practice comprehensive addiction medicine or go on to  further training in addiction medicine fellowships.

Community Partnerships

We could not do this alone! We are grateful to be doing this important work with the following community partners: