Lit review
by
Salamanca-Buentello, Fabio et al
Release Date
2021
Geography
Canada
Language of Resource
English
Full Text Available
Yes
Open Access / OK to Reproduce
Yes
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Objective
Opioid agonist therapy (OAT) has been severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The risks of opioid withdrawal, overdose, and diversion have increased, so there is an urgent need to adapt OAT to best support people who use drugs (PWUD). This review examines the views and experiences of PWUD, health care providers, and health system administrators on OAT during major disruptions to medical care to inform appropriate health system responses during the current pandemic and beyond.
Findings/Key points
We organized our results into three themes: uncertainty, inconsistency, and vulnerability; regulatory inflexibility; and lack of coordination. The highly regulated but poorly coordinated systems of OAT provision lacked flexibility to adapt to major disruptions, thereby manufacturing vulnerability for both PWUD and health workers.
Design/methods
Systematic review examined OAT in the context of hurricanes, earthquakes, and terrorist attacks
Keywords
Harm reduction
Policy/Regulatory
Equity
About prescribers
About PWUD
Barriers and enablers
