Community of Practice: Integrating Addiction Treatment Services Into Primary Care
October 23, 2025 – February 5, 2026
(Every other Thursday, with a two-week holiday break)
1:00 – 2:00 PM ET
2:00 – 2:30 p.m. ET optional office hours
Description:
With their training in whole-person care, primary care providers are often the first providers to witness how addiction – to tobacco, alcohol, and other substances – complicates their patients’ mental and physical condition. Yet primary care providers often have many questions about how to manage substance use disorders (SUDs) in their health center practice. This eight-session Community of Practice (CoP) will guide HRSA-supported health center staff to integrate SUD services into their primary care setting. Grounded in the belief that addiction treatment is a fundamental part of whole-person care, CoP participants will learn from addiction medicine experts and health center colleagues about building shared language around addiction; forming a high-performing addiction/integration treatment team; evaluating and administering screening tools; next steps after a positive SUD screening; managing referrals; and sustaining their health center SUD program. This CoP will provide health centers the opportunity to learn about and exchange effective strategies to provide impactful, team-based addiction care.
Behavioral health professionals may earn one continuing education credit for attending each CoP session.
Objectives:
At the end of this CoP, participants will be able to:
- Apply communication techniques for discussing addiction with patients, colleagues, and co-providers.
- Outline how to create a high-performing addiction integration team.
- Evaluate processes for SUD screening, assessment, treatment, and referrals.
- Use a Plan, Do, Study, Act continuous process model to build sustainability into addiction integration programs.
Facilitators:
Todd “Akiva” Mandell, MD, Senior Associate, Addiction Medicine, Bizzell US, is a board-certified psychiatrist of more than 30 years with added qualifications in addiction psychiatry. His work experience has included direct clinical treatment at the inpatient, partial hospitalization, outpatient, and residential levels of care as well as in administration. Dr. Mandell served for eight years as the medical director for the Vermont State Office of Drug and Alcohol programs, where he was a key participant in the creation of the Vermont Hub and Spoke Model for delivery of medication for opioid use disorder. Prior to joining Bizzell US, he served for five years as the chief medical officer for Community Substance Abuse Centers in New England. He currently supports training and technical assistance activities for Bizzell US as a subject-matter expert.
Jenny Twesten, MPH, Managing Director, Bizzell US
is a public health researcher and communicator with expertise in tobacco control research, cancer prevention, and screening. She has co-authored eight peer-reviewed articles on topics including tobacco-related risk perception and co-occurring substance use and contributed to the development of three National Cancer Institute Tobacco Control Monographs. She also supported the development and launch of an online smoking cessation tool for older adults. She has provided technical assistance to grantees of the National Cancer Institute’s Tobacco Control Research Branch and designed training curricula. Jenny holds a Master of Public Health and serves as a managing director at Bizzell US, where she provides project management and subject-matter expertise across several federal contracts. She is currently the Project Manager for the Health Resources and Services Administration Bureau of Primary Health Care Behavioral Health Substance Use Disorder Technical Assistance project.