Vermont Substance Use Conference 2025

Members of the Department of Mental Health (DMH) and Vermont Department of Health (VDH) will share VT’s CCBHC implementation plan and how this health care transformation has led the way with collaboration, coordination, and connection. CCBHCs ensure access to integrated mental health (MH) and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and health care screening/monitoring with a particular focus on individuals with a significant MH/SUD and/or physical health disorders across the lifespan.

The Vermont Tobacco-Free Recovery team will provide strategies to improve tobacco-use rates among people living with mental health and/or substance use issues, as well as find ways to connect with more organizations to provide more services.

In substance use prevention, intervention, and treatment/recovery, financial resources are often viewed as the primary key to success. However, communities across VT have shown the transformative impact of non-financial resources in building capacity, engaging future professionals, and driving systems-level change. This workshop will feature a youth presentation and a panel discussion highlighting innovative workforce strategies that leverage resources beyond funding.

Recovery from substance use disorder requires more than treatment—it necessitates support, stable housing, and belonging. Vermont Foundation of Recovery operates a statewide network of recovery homes and transitional apartments, offering structured, community-based support. This presentation explores recovery housing as a vital link between treatment and independent living, using real stories and data to show how collaboration improves long-term recovery and builds healthier communities.

Our Vermont Mobile Crisis Teams are trained to assist with substance use crises using harm reduction strategies. Through this session, we want participants to know the crisis services available in Vermont and how to access them. We believe that connection helps people overcome crises. We aim to build relationships with individuals using substances to create a sense of safety and support in tough times—and provide referral and information for treatment.

This session discusses the work of nonfatal overdose biosurveillance at the Vermont Department of Health Laboratory, funded via the CDC's Overdose Data to Action initiative. This is a critical strategy in efforts to inform drug overdose prevention policies and programs. Presenters will introduce our laboratory’s work to the broader substance-use intervention and prevention community, emphasizing the multifaceted collaborations necessary to establish a program of this scale.

Workshop Schedule

• 5 min - Introductions
• 10 min – ASAM Levels of Care
• 10 min – Vermont Examples of Levels of Care
• 10 min – Deciding Level of Care Appropriateness
• 10 min – Principles of Effective Treatment
• 10 min – Changes with ASAM 4^th Edition
• 10 min – Treatment Planning with an ASAM lens: 6 Dimensions
• 10 min – The Crossroads between Treatment, Recovery, Prevention, and Harm Reduction
• 5 min – Accessing Treatment
• 5 min – Points to Consider
• 5 min – Q&A

Objectives:

• Review ASAM criteria for all levels of care, including recent updates via the fourth edition.
• Review the Vermont System of SUD Care.
• Review the NIDA Principles of Effective SUD Treatment.
• Review the relationship between the ASAM 6 dimensions and treatment planning.
• Review the intersection between treatment, recovery, prevention, and harm reduction.
• Review appropriateness of referrals and how to access each level of care.

This session will explore harm reduction as an essential approach to addressing substance use disorders and promoting public health. Rooted in compassion, equity, and evidence-based practices, harm reduction goes beyond abstinence-only models to fully meet individuals where they are at, and collaboratively, with the participant, build from there.

Participants will engage with the history of this public health movement, learn practical strategies for implementing harm reduction services, and familiarize themselves with non-judgmental care approaches. This session will also highlight the importance of fostering connection between individuals, communities, and systems of care to reduce stigma and empower people who use drugs.

Through data, case studies, and success stories, this session will showcase how harm reduction saves lives, promotes healing, and contributes to the state’s ongoing efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.

Description: This session will describe the disproportionate outcomes experienced by justice impacted individuals and their families. Participants will learn about the process of institutionalization and what they can do address trauma and restorative justice within the context of providing Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health services to this population. Moreover, this session will cover the multiple pathways of recovery, harm reduction, and additional strategies for participant engagement and retention in care.
Learning Objectives (Participants will be able to):
1. Describe criminal justice involvement and the impacts on individuals with SUDs and their families;
2. Describe institutionalization, trauma, the multiple pathways of recovery, harm reduction, and restorative justice; and
3. Describe 3-5 strategies for participant engagement and retention in care and recovery processes.

This session will explore how technology-enabled learning and a balance between lived experience and formal training can create a more unified behavioral health workforce in rural Vermont. We’ll examine common barriers to entry-level roles and share innovative workforce strategies from our Maine experience. By emphasizing collaboration, coordination, and connection, we invite you to join us in reimagining more accessible career pathways for those with lived experience in rural Vermont.

The Vermont Department of Health (VDH) has a large volume of publicly-available data. However, finding and accessing the data can be challenging. In the first 30 minutes, we will provide an overview of VDH substance-use data, show where it lives on the website, and provide search tips. We will also share current data about Vermont substance use. We will use the second 30 minutes to focus on one of VDH’s major substance use data publications, the Social Autopsy Report, and how VDH and its partners have used this report to move data into action. While all conference attendees are welcome, our intended audiences are attendees who use or want to use substance use data and those who would like to know more about the Social Autopsy Report.

In this workshop, Writers for Recovery will engage participants in the steps we take to create a vibrant, powerful, and compassionate space for folks to find their voices and connect with each other through storytelling. Building on ten years of work across VT, the workshop will be a place for participants to experience a safe space that offers healing, laughter, and recovery through the act of writing for seven minutes. It's our trademark, and it works!

To address the profound impact that alcohol has on morbidity and mortality in Vermont, Central Vermont Medical Center and the Central Vermont Prevention Coalition have developed an innovative and collaborative hub & spoke model of care for Alcohol Use Disorder called ROAD. The CVMC ROAD initiative is an effort to provide low barrier access to improved and expanded support services including medical intervention across CVMC care settings for patients experiencing problematic or risky drinking.  This multidisciplinary team approach involves ED providers, Primary Care providers, and local treatment providers.  The team also includes Community Health Team Care Managers and Recovery Coaches who provide support, outreach and education regarding local resources and facilitate linkage to ongoing care in hopes of continued engagement. The UVM Health Network High Value Care team amplified the work of the CVMC ROAD program, convening a cross departmental team to formalize a primary care pathway across the network.

This panel session will share the ROAD model, lessons learned, barriers to implementation and strategies to overcome them, and next steps. Attendees will walk away with information needed to consider such a model in their own communities.

Work in substance use can often lead to stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue. In this session, attendees will  learn the signs of these common stressors and how to relieve them. This interactive session will help you better understand why these stressors occur and how we can care for ourselves while continuing to care for others. You’ll gain universal tools to help reduce these stressors so that you can share with your colleagues across the continuum of substance use work.