Alaska trains addiction providers on new treatment guidelines it plans to adopt

The Alaska Division of Behavioral Health is encouraging addiction treatment providers to spend Nov. 12 learning a new edition of the guidelines that help decide what kind of care a patient gets.

The ASAM Criteria, from the American Society of Addiction Medicine, are used to place patients in one of four broad levels of care, from outpatient services to residential and inpatient treatment. The society calls them the most widely used standards of their kind.

It released a fourth edition for adults in October 2023.

As of 2024, Alaska's behavioral health regulations still pointed to the third edition, published in 2013. That year, the division said it was beginning regulatory work to adopt the new one, according to a request for proposals it issued for training.

The division said the update brings "significant changes to policy and practice" in substance use disorder treatment. The request also mentioned "potential changes in the array of services" supported under the state's behavioral health Medicaid waiver.

The division sought a vendor to train providers on the new edition at no cost to them, with sessions running through September 2027.

The Nov. 12 session is online. It covers assessment, treatment planning, admission criteria and when a patient should move to a different level of care, and participants will work through patient case scenarios.

It is open only to Alaska-based professionals who provide direct services and to supervisors or leaders of programs that employ them. Registration is open.

States and payers are adopting the fourth edition at varying rates, the society says.

The division is also running a November series on screening for risky substance use, Alaska News reported Oct. 22.