On-Demand CME Activities

Social determinants of health (SDoH) include (but are not limited to) gender inequality, structural racism, stigma, poverty, citizenship status, education, housing, transportation, health systems and services, social safety network, food insecurity, unemployment/employment and working conditions, public safety, and social exclusion/inclusion. These SDoH accumulate and intersect to either promote the health and well-being of communities or to prevent individuals and communities from reaching health equity. Our experiences with SDoH impact implicit bias and manifest in our personal and professional lives. This course will explore how SDoH create differential impacts around substance use disorder, the opioid epidemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic, and how implicit bias can impact healthcare systems. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on examples from their own experiences and discuss not only challenges, but also ways to overcome these challenges individually, and as an organization.

Learning Objectives

This course will:

• Review and define terms related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and social determinants of health (SDoH).
• Explore data on the impact of DEI and SDoH issues on health care access, experiences, and outcomes.
• Describe how social determinants can explain disparities in substance and opioid use disorder (SUD/OUD) prevalence and the recovery continuum.
• Outline the meaning of DEI and SDoH for approaching SUD and OUD prevention, treatment, and recovery.
• Identify implicit vs. explicit bias in various settings.
• Discuss implicit bias as a contributing factor to health and healthcare disparities.
• Outline effective strategies for engaging in dialogue around implicit bias.

This module is intended to provide clinicians with information on features of the PMP. At the end of this module, users should understand the available tools in the PMP and a basic understanding of interpreting risk scores.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will better understand:

• How to use the PMP as a tool for patient safety.
• The new PMP functionalities.
• The ‘Overdose Risk Score’.

This course is intended to address the opioid-specific education requirements under Maine Public Law Chapter 21 and 488. Maine’s opioid prescribing law requires providers to limit the daily opioid dosages for chronic pain to patients. But how can providers meet this legal requirement while also limiting their patients’ distress? This online course reviews why tapering is important, common tapering scenarios, techniques for effectively and compassionately tapering opioid dosages, and office workflows around tapering.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will better understand:

• Prescribing Laws (Understanding Chapter 21 and 488).
• The principles of ethical and compassionate opioid tapering aimed at reducing unintentional overdose and suicide.
• Opioid prescribing trends in Maine, across the U.S., and internationally.
• The services offered to prescribers in Maine through the Schmidt Institute’s Controlled Substance Stewardship Program.
• The risk factors for opioid overdose and suicide.

This course is intended to address the opioid-specific education requirements under Maine Public Law Chapter 488. At the end of this course, users will have knowledge on alternative treatments that are available as options to assist with chronic pain as well as tips from patients living with chronic pain.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will better understand:

• How chronic pain differs from acute pain.
• Potential alternative treatments that exist and may aid with chronic pain.
• How to communicate with patients about alternative treatments
• Ways to reduce or eliminate pain by addressing the physical, psychological, and social components of pain.
• The perspective of a patient living with chronic pain.

This course is intended to address the opioid-specific education requirements under Maine Public Law Chapter 488. At the end of this course, users should understand the appropriate use of benzodiazepine, alternative to benzo use, and why prescribing opioids and benzodiazepines is a deadly combination.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Describe the epidemiology of benzodiazepine and opioid related overdose deaths in Maine and the United States.
• Describe the clinical use of benzodiazepines including indications for short term use, safety and tolerability, monitoring, and risk of physiological dependency and/or development of sedative use disorder.
• Identify compassionate and safe benzodiazepine tapering durations and strategies, as well as factors that would influence taper speed and duration.
• Identify first line and alternative non-benzodiazepine treatments for insomnia, agitation, and anxiety.

This course is intended to address the opioid-specific education requirements under Maine Public Law Chapter 488. At the end of this course, users will be educated on how to use Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) with adolescents to prevent future or to intervene on current substance use disorder (SUD).

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will:

• Understand that substance use disorders often begin in adolescence
• Become familiar with the standard tools used to screen for substance use disorders in adolescence
• Understand that brief intervention using motivational techniques can be effective for the adolescent population

Objectives:
-Review the management of mood disorders such as depression and anxiety when co-occurring;
-Review the management of attention deficit disorders when co-occurring;
-Review the management of trauma-related disorders when co-occurring.

Objectives:
-Learners will gain an understanding of the current opioid crisis on a national, regional and patient level.
-Learners will gain an understanding of the pharmacology, efficacy and how to choose between medications for opioid use disorder: buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone.

Objectives:

• Understand the risks for substance use and addiction for healthcare professionals.
• Review treatment recommendations for healthcare professionals with AUD/SUD
• Become aware of the function of the NH Professionals Health Program

In this module, participants will learn how to use the Eat Sleep Console Care Tool 4th ed. in the setting of infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome or neonatal opioid withdrawal. The functional assessment of the infant, treatment decision-making, and parent/caregiver education are the main topic areas. The history of the development of the tool and current research on the use of the tool is also described. This module is intended as the first step in training. It is essential that the learner who is using the tool in the field also receive hands-on training in the field.

This module is designed to equip healthcare professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to enhance mental health services for veterans. It focuses on identifying risk factors, implementing preventive strategies, and providing effective interventions for veterans experiencing suicidal ideation. The course emphasizes a compassionate approach, tailored to address the unique psychological challenges faced by those who have served in the military, ensuring that veterans receive the highest standard of care in their journey towards mental well-being. 

CHWs are increasingly recognized as important members of the healthcare team that can help to improve population health, enhance the patient experience, improve provider satisfaction, and contain healthcare costs. To effectively work with a CHW, providers and administrators must understand the CHW’s identify, skills, and roles; how a CHW compares with other health professionals; the ways a CHW can improve patient care; and how to successfully integrate a CHW within a care team. In this webinar, six speakers from healthcare systems, a community-based organization, and Maine’s state health department will share their collective experience and best practices with participants on what to consider when partnering with a CHW. 

This material aims to integrate interventions within primary care to help families develop healthy coping skills and foster positive childhood experiences. It focuses on summarizing current research on ACEs, PCEs, and toxic stress, promoting evidence-based interventions, and teaching practical strategies like meditation and mindfulness. Additionally, it encourages using PDSA cycles to help families incorporate these practices into their daily routines.

Participants will expand their understanding of the prevalence and impact of trauma on both patients and healthcare professionals. They will learn how trauma-responsive care is being integrated into perinatal quality improvement initiatives and how to be trauma-responsive in individual practice and organizations. Participants will identify specific strategies to mitigate trauma and to express compassion in challenging and common scenarios and reflect on how using trauma-informed communication can improve care for the patient and their own professional experiences.  Finally, participants will build resources for continued learning.

Explore how developing a solution focused mindset and skills can improve the quality of care provided and the quality of the experience you have as a professional.  We will explore what compassion is, where it comes from, how to develop and express it and what prevents us from feeling or expressing compassion in our work environments. Participants will learn and use self-reflective practice models that can be easily integrated into their professional practice and help facilitate behavior change.  This session will give professionals the tools they need to best support patients and clients to improve their health and well-being, while addressing compassion fatigue to foster wellbeing and longevity in the dynamic healthcare environment.

In this module, participants will explore the complex narratives of birth in our culture and how individual and system wide efforts can save lives, improve health outcomes and change the way people feel about their birth experience.  We will examine the history of birth in our culture and its impact on the experiences of patients and healthcare professionals today.  Participants will learn about the prevalence of and contributing factors to obstetric mistreatment and birth trauma as well as how to mitigate it. Finally, we will explore the impact of social conditioning and beliefs on one’s perceptions of the birth experience and how to support people to find new meaning in their birth stories.

This online module examines the trends and demographics for suicide in the US, the role that prescription and illicit opioids and Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) have played in those trends, the risk factors for suicidality in the context of chronic pain and in OUD, and the impact of opioid de-prescribing on suicidality and on population health. A broad overview of compassionate opioid tapering is covered, as well as the concept of Complex Persistent Opioid Dependence (CPOD)

This learning module is designed to enhance your understanding of mental health awareness and support as it relates to medical professionals. This module introduces various mental health screening tools, enabling you to confidently recognize signs and symptoms. Learn effective strategies to overcome obstacles and barriers that often hinder individuals from seeking help, fostering a supportive environment and gain valuable insights into the 2022 Healthcare Provider Protection Act and its specific implications for the state of Maine.

This learning module focuses on teaching attendees’ skills around how to be respectful of gender identity in medical practice, which both improves patient experience and patient health outcomes. While transgender people have always existed, it is more recent that many trans people have been able to be out and access medical care as themselves. Because of this, many healthcare staff are unsure of how to navigate gender identity and respectfulness in medical practice. This module will give attendees the knowledge and skills to navigate this with confidence.

This module is intended to provide clinicians with information on features of the PMP. At the end of this module, users should have an understanding of the available tools in the PMP and a basic understanding of interpreting risk scores.

This module is intended to address the opioid-specific education requirements under Maine Public Law Chapter 488. At the end of this module, users should understand the appropriate use of benzodiazepine, alternative to benzo use, why prescribing opioids and benzodiazepines is a deadly combination.

This training will explore how social determinants of health, which include gender inequality, structural racism, stigma, poverty, citizenship status, education, housing, transportation, health systems and services, social safety network, food insecurity, unemployment/employment and working conditions, public safety, and social exclusion/inclusion, create differential impacts around substance use disorder, the opioid epidemic, and the current COVID-19 pandemic and how implicit bias can impact healthcare systems.

This module is intended to address the opioid-specific education requirements under Maine Public Law Chapter 488. At the end of this module, users will have more information on the experience of one Community Hospital when implementing a buprenorphine initiation program in their emergency department, as well as how to impact SUD/OUD care provided in the hospital setting through reducing stigma.

This self-paced online module will introduce standard tools used to screen for substance use disorders in adolescents and how to use motivational techniques to intervene with the adolescent population.

This module is intended to address the opioid-specific education requirements under Maine Public Law Chapter 21 and 488. Maine’s opioid prescribing law requires providers to limit the daily opioid dosages for chronic pain to patients. But how can providers meet this legal requirement while also limiting their patients’ distress? This online learning module reviews why tapering is important, common tapering scenarios, techniques for effectively and compassionately tapering opioid dosages, and office workflows around tapering.

This module is intended to address the opioid-specific education requirements under Maine Public Law Chapter 488. At the end of this module, users will have knowledge on alternative treatments that are available as options to assist with chronic pain as well as tips from patients living with chronic pain.

• Increase awareness of the essential elements of the reproductive health attestation amendments to the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
• Apply the new attestation requirements in hypothetical case scenarios.
• Develop proficiency in implementing the new attestation requirements within your professional practice.