Opioid Agonist Maintenance Treatment Standards of Practice Consultation Now Open

October 30th, 2023

Over the past year, NLPB has been working on revisions to the Standards for the Safe and Effective Provision of Opioid Agonist Maintenance Treatment. Please refer to the Background section below for more details regarding this project.

At this time, we are inviting pharmacy professionals and other interested parties to provide feedback on a new draft of the Standards of Practice.

This consultation is being conducted using a secure online survey. Individual survey responses are anonymous and confidential. All participants are advised to review the draft standards before participating in the survey and make notes as necessary to refer to while completing the survey.

If you are unable to access the document or survey by clicking the link, copy and paste the link into your web browser’s address bar.

Please note: You can leave the survey at any time and resume later if you use the same computer and web browser as when you began the survey. If you attempt to resume the survey on another computer or using a different browser, you will have to restart the survey from the beginning.

The deadline for completing the survey is November 30, 2023.

Background

The draft Standards of Practice was developed based on feedback from the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre on Substance Use and in collaboration with a task force comprised of pharmacy professionals who participate in the provision of medications to treat opioid use disorder in the province. In preparing this document, consideration was given to:

  • adding content related to ethical considerations, including principles of stigma, trauma-informed care, and harm reduction;
  • reducing the amount of clinical content contained within the standards, as this content can change over the lifespan of the standards document;
  • eliminating links to specific references, education programs, etc., as these links can change or expire over the lifespan of the standards document;
  • eliminating the “authorization” processes for both pharmacists and pharmacies in the interest of reducing stigma; and
  • streamlining sections related to assessing prescriptions and releasing doses to help reduce repetition throughout the document.

The feedback that is received during this consultation will inform and support the final draft of the standards that will be submitted to the NLPB Board of Directors for approval in early 2024. If you have any questions regarding the purpose of the survey or the use of survey data, please contact Melanie Healey, Deputy Registrar and Director of Practice & Registration, at mhealey@nlpb.ca or (709) 753-5877 ext. 202.

We appreciate your time and look forward to your feedback.

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