The FORE project will address existing gaps in addiction treatment in New Hampshire for hospital inpatient populations, while engaging people living with or who are in recovery from a substance use disorder in identifying and testing solution strategies. The project will be implemented through the Experience Based Co-Design (EBCD) model, an approach that includes participation from all stakeholders, including patients, and will provide innovative methods and strategies to further access to lifesaving treatment for OUD patients. The FORE project will facilitate the adoption of evidence-based practices like inpatient screening for SUDs and initiation of medications for addiction treatment, and identify behavioral, social, and environmental interventions to support patient access to treatment and harm reduction. 

This project seeks to combat these challenges through provider education and training as well as through developing patient-informed care and engagement strategies. Effective provider education will reduce bias, increase understanding of OUD as a chronic disease of the brain. Effective education will also combat compassion fatigue by better equipping providers with knowledge and skills of clinical treatment strategies and enlarging goals of care to include harm reduction.  Engaging patients and families in designing and evaluating clinical and behavioral treatment strategies will more effectively include an often disregarded and marginalized population. In engaging patients and families as partners of healthcare organizations this project will provide a model for future patient and family engagement and facilitate shift in attitudes towards this patient population.